12 Oct

The Future of Learning: Custom Software Solutions for Education Sector

In an era marked by rapid technological advancements, the education sector has not remained untouched. Traditional teaching methods are evolving to meet the demands of a digital age, and this transformation is largely driven by custom software development. At Ascezen Consulting, we are at the forefront of revolutionizing the education sector through our Custom Software Solutions for Education Sector. In this blog, we will explore how tailored software solutions or web applications are reshaping the education landscape and the unique solutions we offer to educational institutions.

The Changing Face of Education

Education has always been a cornerstone of society, but the way it is delivered and consumed has changed dramatically over the years. The advent of the internet and the proliferation of digital devices have paved the way for e-learning, making education more accessible and convenient. Custom software application development plays a pivotal role in this evolution by creating tailored solutions for the Education sector to enhance the learning experience.

Challenges in Education

Before delving into how custom software solutions for education sector can address these challenges, it’s important to understand the key issues faced by educational institutions:

Diverse Learning Needs: Students have varying learning styles and paces, making it challenging for educators to cater to individual needs effectively.
Engagement: Keeping students engaged in a digital learning environment can be difficult. Passive learning through lectures often fails to engage the learners.
Assessment and Feedback: Traditional assessment methods may not be well-suited for online learning, and providing timely feedback can be challenging.
Administrative Burden: Educational institutions deal with an overload of administrative tasks, ranging from managing student records to scheduling classes.

How Custom Software Solutions for Education Sector Can Help

Personalized Learning Solutions

Custom software development allows educational institutions to create personalized learning experiences. Adaptive learning platforms can analyze students’ strengths and weaknesses, tailoring content to their needs. This not only improves learning outcomes but also keeps students hooked on to the learning.

Interactive Learning

Interactive and gamified learning applications developed by custom web application development experts like Ascezen Consulting make learning more enjoyable. Features like quizzes, simulations, and virtual labs can bring subjects to life and foster active participation.

Assessment and Analytics

Custom web applications can streamline assessment processes. Online exams, automated grading, and detailed analytics provide educators with valuable insights into student performance. This data-driven approach enables timely interventions to support struggling students.

Administrative Efficiency

Managing the administrative aspects of education is made easier with custom software. From student enrollment and attendance tracking to course scheduling and resource allocation, custom solutions can optimize processes and reduce the administrative workload.

Ascezen Consulting’s Expertise

At Ascezen Consulting, we have a proven track record in developing custom software solutions for educational institutions. Here’s how we stand out:

Tailored Solutions: We understand that each educational institution is unique. Our custom software solutions are tailored to address the specific challenges and goals of each Institution.

User-Centric Design: We prioritize user experience in all our projects. Our team of designers and developers work collaboratively to create intuitive and visually appealing interfaces.

Scalability and Integration: We build software with scalability in mind, ensuring that it can grow alongside your institution. We also specialize in integrating custom software with existing systems and technologies.

Data Security: Protecting sensitive student and institutional data is paramount. Our solutions adhere to the highest security standards, ensuring data integrity and compliance with regulations.

Custom software development is reshaping education by addressing the challenges faced by educational institutions. At Ascezen Consulting, we are committed to revolutionizing education through our Custom Software Solutions for Education Sector. By creating personalized, interactive, and efficient solutions, we empower educational institutions to provide a superior learning experience and streamline their operations. Contact us today to learn how we can help your institution thrive in the digital age of education. Together, we can shape the future of learning.

By admin DIgital Marketing, Uncategorized, web development, website design Custom Software Solutions, education management software, learning management system, performance marketing, software for educational institutions Comments Off

12 Oct

Performance Marketing: How Ascezen Can Help You Grow Your Business

Performance marketing is defined as a type of digital marketing where brands compensate service providers only when specific goals are achieved, like a certain number of clicks, leads, or sales, ensuring a performance-based approach.

Ascezen is a digital marketing services provider in India, offering a range of services to help you grow your business online, including performance marketing. We can help you with:

Setting up and managing your performance marketing campaigns on various platforms, such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, LinkedIn Ads, etc.
Creating and optimizing your landing pages, web pages, and other digital assets to increase conversions and reduce bounce rates.
Writing and designing engaging and persuasive ad copies, headlines, CTAs, and other content elements to attract and retain your audience.
Tracking and analyzing your campaign performance using various tools and metrics, such as conversion rate, cost per action (CPA), return on ad spend (ROAS), etc.
Providing you with regular reports and insights on your campaign performance and suggesting improvements and recommendations.

Ascezen has a team of experienced and skilled digital marketing professionals who can handle all aspects of your performance marketing campaigns. We have served various industry verticals such as automation, automobile, e-commerce, education, healthcare, IT/software, media, NGOs, real estate, renewable energy, social enterprises, travel and hospitality.

With a proven track record of delivering high-quality services to our clients worldwide, we are committed to excellence and customer satisfaction. We work with you as your partner and guide you through every step of your online marketing journey.

If you are looking for a reliable and affordable performance marketing service provider in India, contact Ascezen today and get a free quote for your digital marketing requirements. We are ready to help you achieve your business goals through marketing.

By admin DIgital Marketing, Uncategorized performance marketing Comments Off

12 Oct

Grow your Business with IT Enabling: A Webinar

TiE Lucknow organized an online discussion on the topic “Grow your Business with IT-enabling” keeping with the organization’s key objectives. It is worth making a note that Qais Mujeeb, M.D., Ascezen Consulting was one of the speakers for the knowledge sharing event.

About TiE
The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), was founded in 1992 in Silicon Valley by a group of successful entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and senior professionals with roots in the Indus region.
With 61 chapters across 18 countries. TiE’s mission is to foster entrepreneurship globally through mentoring, networking, education, and funding.

Tie Lucknow started functioning in 2014 under TiE Uttar Pradesh chapter, which was operating from Kanpur. In 2015, Lucknow chapter was started to build and strengthen the start-up ecosystem in Lucknow. Each year, TiE Lucknow has a line-up of events such as knowledge series, Entrepreneurs’ stories, start-up funding and so on.

About the Webinar

The “Grow your Business with IT-enabling” webinar was focused on informing entrepreneurs and business owners about the ways to automate business operations using technology and strengthen the Digital Presence of their businesses. The event was exclusively designed for Online sellers, Retailers and Manufacturers. The agenda of the session was to educate the online sellers, retailers and manufacturers about:

Outsourcing the Website development and Digital Marketing operations
Tracking the work progress and efficacy of Digital Marketing Campaigns
Increasing sales through social media and web
Digitizing internal processes/Backend Operations
Some easy-to-use tools and apps

The speakers talked about all the pros and cons and the kind of digital marketing engagement that could be relevant and useful for the small businesses or start-ups. They discussed the challenges faced by first generation entrepreneurs such as:

Hiring the right kind of talent
Managing the Digital Marketing team without the know-how
Bearing the high cost of hiring and managing the team

Outsourcing is generally better for small businesses as you get professional help, broader knowledge stack (not limited to single technology), saves times, shortens the time-to-market, no training needed and flexible costing. You can get a reliable vendor through some personal references or generic research on the web. You can benefit by reading reviews and testimonials, learn about previous projects they have handled. Start small to see that you can communicate with them, trust them and get work done in a timely manner. It’s always recommended to outsource as it keeps you on the authoritative position and gives you less stress and worries about the digital handling of your business and you can keep a regular track of it yourself. The time you save can be utilized on other important aspects of running your business in an efficient way.

How can a business realize growth in revenue through social media?

Be where your audience is (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Etsy, Pinterest)
Building a relationship with your prospects
Establishing yourself as an industry expert, educate your audience
Post often and consistently
Vary content to keep it fresh (eBooks, podcasts, webinars, photos/videos)
Use latest trends to increase brand visibility
User generated content -> Loyal customers -> Brand advocates
Answer follower questions and comments
Engage the visitors with Chatbots and quick responses over messengers
Optimize social media presence (to make information easily accessible)
Research the target audience
Try Influencer marketing
Invest in social media advertising
To know more about IT enabling your business or growing your business using website and social media, get in touch with Ascezen Consulting today. You can even check out the recorded session on Tie Lucknow YouTube channel.

By admin Uncategorized business growth, consulting, ecommerce, growth hacking, it enabling, online presence, sell online, social commerce, web presence, webinar Comments Off

12 Oct

Ascezen recognized as a Diamond Partner by Unicommerce

We are proud to share that Ascezen Consulting is recognized as the Diamond Partner by Unicommerce Solutions. Ascezen Consulting is a leading business and technical content services provider not just in India but globally as well. Ascezen features on page 1 search engine results on Google search for several long-tail keywords including “content services provider” throughout the world.
Being ranked on top positions in Google search results is a testimony in its own way. It indicates the Content and SEO capabilities of Ascezen Consulting. It also signifies that Ascezen connects well with its target audience and delivers content that is error-free, plagiarism free, relevant and useful.During Saral 2021, a virtual eCommerce summit that was held on 24th and 25th July 2021, Unicommerce invited Mohammad Qais Mujeeb – Managing Director, Ascezen Consulting Private Limited to received the Diamond Partner award during the virtual Award Ceremony.

Later, Unicommerce shared a note on their social media pages on LinkedIn and Facebook, saying that Ascezen’s contribution and continuous devotion helped Unicommerce reach the initial goal of simplifying eCommerce selling.

While being delighted at this association with Unicommerce and getting the recognition, Ascezen is committed to enable more and more eCommerce businesses in future. From creating an online presence for small and medium businesses, Ascezen is all set to offer them consulting services on how to register more eCommerce business growth, profitability and realize increased efficiency.

By admin web development, website design aesthetic design, appealing website, colour scheme, user experience, web experience Comments Off

12 Oct

E-commerce: 10 tools to grow your business

In a report recently published by Statista, a business data company, the e-commerce market is likely to grow to 2.14 billion people buying products online globally by 2021, a significant increase from the 1.66 billion global digital buyers in 2016. It is time to scale up your ecommmerce store even if you need to hire an e-commerce enabling agency to make a strong footprint on the market.
Starting an e-commerce business today is hard. Not only does it involve sourcing products and finding the right developer for your idea but also ensuring that each visitor who visits your website helps you to increase the conversions it makes. Getting great results on the store and converting the KPIs on the website, among other things, can be a difficult task to achieve for beginners.
Using a suite of tools and integrations however, you can significantly increase the conversion rates on your online portal, ensuring more success.

These tools can not only help you add advanced functionality to your website, but also help you launch targeted marketing campaigns along with tracking the user’s behaviour on your portal, helping you in decision making and ensuring success.

HotJar

HotJar is a great tool to analyse which part of your website the customer interacts the most with. The heat-mapping tool can help you analyse between 1,000 to 10,000 page views and create an aggregate analysis. Moreover, it also comes with session recording capabilities, which can help you understand which part of your website the customer is spending the most time on. The tool also allows you to filter data as per your own will and help you gain an insight into the specific details.

SerpStat

SEO and optimizing your website for easy discoverability can prove to be a task. Using SerpStat, one can do tasks like keywords research, backlink analysis, site audits and detailed competitive analysis for digital marketers. It bills itself as the “growth hacking tool for SEO, PPC, Search analytics and Content marketing”.

It allows you to reframe your SEO strategy and attain more conversion on the website.?

Conversion Voodoo

The Conversion Voodoo tool can help you by monitoring the first impressions of your visitors, performs A/B testing and even optimizes your landing page.

It offers a free performance analytics tool but thereafter, charges a fee without any upfront costs.

PushCrew

PushCrew is a push notifications service that allows you to send push notifications to your users. E-commerce is an attention-focused industry to operate in, and hence sending push notifications can help you drive traffic to your website, without spending too much money on different marketing channels or techniques.

Usability Hub

Usability Hub is a user testing and usability research platform which can help you how you want design your website/app’s UX by conducting real-time usability tests. It helps you test the usability of your e-commerce store and which design experience suits it more amongst other options,

Moreover, it also has clients like Google, Amazon, TaskRabbit and Airtable which makes it a credible option to test the effectiveness of your own website,

Google Analytics

Google Analytics, the data visualisation and analytics’ offering analytics and metrics for Google products, is an excellent tool that helps you dig deep and find relevant issues plaguing your website,

MailChimp

An email marketing service that allows you to quickly create an email campaign, send newsletters and create other social media posts, MailChimp is an effective tool used to create customised newsletters and other promotional emails to your customers.

Intercom

Intercom is a customer messaging tool that allows you to add live chat functionality to your website or app. Using Intercom, e-commerce websites can easily convert visitors to buyers through prompt and responsible customer service.

Leadformly

Leadformly can help you create highly-converting forms that can help you generate new and existing leads on your website. Leadformly provides a service to not only generate new leads, but also optimize the inbound leads and increase their quality. It is a great tool to create highly engaging forms that in turn, lead to more website conversions.

Unicommerce

Unicommerce can help streamline your backend business operations through centralized order processing and unified inventory across all the sales channels you might be using. It might aid in reducing the returns, ease the accounting & reconciliation, reduce human resource cost, enhance productivity, increase accuracy and profitability by automating all channels, shipping solutions, and accounting systems.

Ascezen Consulting can help you set up your e-commerce store and maintain it for you too. Get in touch to learn more about how we can help grow your online business.

By admin Uncategorized conversionvoodoo, e-commerce, ecommerceenabling, ecommercetools, googleanalytics, hotjar, intercom, leadformly, mailchimp, PPC, pushcrew, SEO, serpstat, uncommerce, unicommerce, usabilityhub Comments Off

12 Oct

As Silver Partner for Saral E-Commerce Summit

We’re delighted to announce Ascezen Consulting Private Limited is the Silver Partner at India’s mega e-commerce summit #Saral 2022.
Saral 2022 will be a day-long interactive and information loaded event, on 9th September 2022 at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi.

Saral2022 #SaralEcommerce #EcommerceEvent #Unicommerce #Event2022 #EcommerceSummit #EcommerceIndia #AscezenConsulting

By admin DIgital Marketing performance marketing Comments Off

26 Jul

How does the right colour scheme on a website help with conversions?

Colours are an important aspect of how we see and perceive things.The visual appeal of any particular object or product is a huge determinant of whether We would buy it or not. Similarly, choosing the right colour scheme on a website can help in getting more conversions.

Scientific research has over the years, discovered an increasingly effective role of colours in influencing the emotional and physical state of a person. While the reason behind what triggers this reaction is still not proven, colour theory is a widely accepted phenomena of design.

Facebook is a classic example of the impact of colour psychology. Using a colour scheme that revolves mainly around blue, which stands for credibility, peace and trustworthiness, Facebook was able to churn out a huge number of conversions and traffic in its initial days. Something as mundane as the colour of a call-to-action button can significantly increase the time an average user spends on your website, hence more chances of converting them into regular users of your product or service.

Keeping in mind a few vital points in mind, and choosing the best colour scheme can have a multiplying effect on how people interact with your website. Some of the important factors worth knowing are:

Know your audience

It is necessary for a website to know about the demographic or age group they are targeting. The liking of a male user may vary from those of a female user. A male user may prefer louder colours and a female may prefer more sober colours when using a product.

Having knowledge of the preferences of your target audience and how they interact with different aspects of colour psychology has an important role in the web design process.

What you show is what you sell

Knowing the products and services that you are offering to your customers often has a significant contribution in converting a potential customer to a paying customer. Companies that sell organic, agricultural or plant-based products then, are more likely to choose shades of green on their website or e-commerce store.

Using plain, solid colours

While it is an exciting proposition to use a heady mix of different colour combinations, most successful companies stick to a singular colour scheme for the entire User Interface (UI) of their website. It not only makes the website look cleaner but also reduces the chances of an increased bounce rate.

Learn from your competitors

Before beginning with the design and development process, a competitive analysis of the websites of businesses operating in your industry can serve a good purpose. You can take inspiration from them and also try using it in creating a unique web presence for your brand(s).

Always test your colour combinations

Testing different colour combinations and analysing the impact it has had on the overall user experience can help you choose the right combination for the right consumer or visitor. For example, red is more likely to convince an impulsive buyer to buy a product from your e-commerce store than say, a blue colour scheme.

Call-to-action buttons shouldn’t be left out

While the overall UX of a website is a major contributor to increased conversion rates, using the right colour combination for the call-to-action (CTA) buttons is as vital as the former.

Call-to-action buttons enable the website to interact with the user-generated data and are persuasive. It is therefore, imperative to use colours that keep users engaged to your website.

The above-mentioned guidelines, if followed diligently, can really help the web presence succeed in creating a delightful user experience while also ensuring maximum returns on the time and effort invested in making the website a highly-engaging point that gathers new sales or customers for an organisation. To create such thoughtful as well as effective websites, get in touch with Ascezen Consulting today. Mail us now.

By admin web development, website design aesthetic design, appealing website, colour scheme, user experience, web experience Comments Off

20 Jun

How to use your Website for Content Marketing?

In the last few years, the marketing landscape in the country has changed significantly. While in the earlier times, you could just put out an advertisement and get your product promoted, audiences today have become smarter. The brands whose content adds value in some way or the other to people’s lives are the ones that are more prone to success in the long run. Likewise, you can use your website for content marketing in a cost effective way.

It is no doubt then, that a large number of companies, no matter how large or small, are investing heavily on putting out content that not just promotes their own business but also creates significant value to their customers’ lives. Marketers, individually or as part of a marketing communication agency, are now placing their bets on creating content relevant to their industry, leading to the emergence of content hubs as a potential marketing tool.

So, what exactly is a content hub? To simplify, content hubs are a repository of pages, containing your best content, focused around the area your company operates in, which is also intrinsically relevant to the company’s audience. It serves 4 major purposes:

1. Positioning – positioning involves highlighting the utility or day-to-day happenings of a particular company through content. It might include stories of employees, business partners or how a particular offering from the company helped a customer and created awareness about their brand in people’s minds.

2. Engagement – This kind of content talks mostly about the company’s culture and brand ethos. It is mostly aimed towards converting the prospective users into the consumers of the product.

3. Expertise – Taking the example of Hubspot, such kind of content tries to educate the people with domain specific content or give solutions to their day-to-day problems, in terms of personal or professional growth. Hubspot, a popular marketing software company, regularly publishes content focused around how customers and marketers can use its tools and services to accelerate the growth of their business or learn a new skill set.

4. Influence – one of the hottest trends in the world of marketing and digital is the emergence of influencer marketing. Companies create content around the utility derived by influencers or thought leaders from using their products.

A pertinent question that companies often are confused about is if they should create a standalone content hub to put out content or should they integrate it inside their corporate portal itself?
To answer this, a few considerations always play an important role, which are as follows:

Does your website enjoy search engine visibility?

If your company’s corporate website has a higher visibility and ranking on the search engines, you can integrate the content hub well within itself, since any web page that is associated with a high ranked website can easily gain traffic and visits without having to create an entire funnel again to drive engagement with your content. In such a scenario, creating another domain to serve as your content hub is debatable.

Do you want to be seen as an authority in the industry you operate in?

Most often, companies that create a standalone content hub want to be seen as an authoritative figure in the industry without having any biases towards its own products or services. For example, international brand LÓREAL debuted a website called ‘Fab Beauty’ a few years ago that took into perspective, the entire beauty industry without any hard selling or bias towards its own products.

If your company is planning to not be 100% unbiased in approach and doesn’t have multiple products or services to offer, it’s preferable to move your content to your own corporate website rather than investing in a separate online entity.

Is your website an idle website?

More often than not, corporate or enterprise websites do not change much with time. As we wrote about it some time back, an idle website creates a negative impression of the company in the customer or business partner’s mind and also brings the credibility of your business in question.

An idle website also creates a competitive disadvantage for the company, since your competitor’s fresh and regularly updated website not only creates a good impression on prospective customers but also leads to increase in traffic and visibility of the organisation on the web.

Putting out fresh and relevant content is hence, a prerogative to success in today’s content marketing landscape.

Do you want to generate leads with your content?

Content marketing, especially the subscription and email newsletters, can provide analytical, real-time data for your company to generate newer leads. Having a content hub gives you the power to use data and target new prospects.
That is why, it is vital to analyse if your corporate website is good enough to generate subscriptions on its own.

What is your brand’s positioning?

A market leading brand, which enjoys certain popularity among the masses can invest in driving its thought leadership over to a new domain. Since it has been around for a long time, a well-positioned brand enjoys the trust of the customer.

If you are a new brand that wants to invest in creating a standalone content hub, it will require patience and constant trial-and-error to finally be able to see significant results and engagement for your content.

Get in touch with Ascezen Consulting today to know how we can create and run a content intensive website for your business.

By admin Content Marketing, web development, website design brand positioning, Content Marketing, Expertise- Taking, idle website, SEO visibility Comments Off

23 Apr

Best Technical Writing Training in Lucknow

Technical Writing Training in Lucknow

With the advent of the digital age and related IT professions, technical writing has developed in to a writing style of its own. What started taking shape during World War II can be found everywhere today – from user guides for household electronics to whitepapers, and given the rapid growth of tech industry, the boom is more than likely to continue in the future as well. In the U.S. alone, employment of technical writers is anticipated to grow by 11% between 2016 and 2026, as per their Bureau of Labor Statistics. There is a rising demand for good technical writing training institutes in India where Ascezen Consulting ranks among the best Technical Writing Training provider in Lucknow India.

Industries across various spheres rely on professional technical writing services to create technical documentation that presents complex information in a coherent and simple manner for easy understanding of the end-user. Of course, writing is a major chunk of what a technical writer does but even beyond gathering and disseminating information, they create and add value for the customers through high-quality content. After all, what good is your new gadget if you cannot figure out how to use it?

Technical writing takes several forms and is relevant to a number of industries, which means in order to produce error-free content, what organisations need is someone with an in-depth knowledge of the genre/product as well as the writing practices. A general opinion seems to be that anybody with reasonably good writing skills and a little tech knowledge can become a writer, which might not always hold true. It is equally necessary to possess at least some basic skills (analytical and writing) and some prowess with the content publishing and image editing tools (Adobe Robohelp, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Photoshop, MadCap Flare, Techsmith Snagit, HTML Help Workshop, Microsoft Office, and so on) to ensure that the end-results are accurate and comprehensible.

As one of the leading technical content writing services and training providers in Lucknow, Ascezen Consulting prides itself in delivering results that are crisp, effective and precise. Having worked with several verticals, we excel at providing:

Technical Blogs
Whitepapers
Online Help
Product and API Documentation
User, Product & Operations Manuals
Release Notes
Standard Operating Procedures
Installation Guides, Administrator’s Guides & Configuration Guides

This is just a small glimpse of what we do. Our all-inclusive curriculum for technical writing training in Lucknow provides an in-depth understanding of the entire process, including writing, editing, output formats and visual aid tools. Our course will help you identify your target users and produce appropriate results.

Technical Writers are paid well

It might be surprising for some people but it is worth taking a note that Technical Writers are paid at par with Software Engineers at a large of number of leading corporations.

If you see yourself as an aspiring technical writer, read more about our courses here or get in touch with us for Technical Writing Training in Lucknow.

By admin Technical Writing Training technical writer lucknow, technical writing lucknow, technical writing services lucknow, technical writing training lucknow Comments Off

17 Aug

Chatbots: The new Marketing tool

Did you ever notice a small chat window, which pops up on a website, asking if it can help you? One might think that it’s human on the other side of the computer but it is actually a chatbot that has been programmed to assist you. Essentially, they are software applications that perform automated tasks, mostly by interacting with users using spoken or written communication. Chatbots are also known as talkbots, IM bots or simply bots, even though the original term was ‘Chatterbot’, given by Michael Mauldin who created the first bot- Julia in 1994.

Chatbots are instant, interactive, and they are here to stay. They have become increasingly popular as an engagement tool and deemed to be the next big thing in the world of marketing and business communication. Moving beyond old-style online advertising, brands all across are now integrating chatbots into their strategies to offer a more personalised experience to the consumers or prospective customers.

Chatbots are designed to have a conversational interface that emulates how humans behave in real life while talking to each other. They rely heavily on sophisticated technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP). The more modest systems scan the inputs for keywords and produce the most relevant response accordingly.

Today, bots are mostly used for B2C customer service and marketing across different categories that include e-commerce, education, entertainment, finance, marketing, shopping, travel and customer support, to name a few. Many companies rely on messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, WeChat and Telegram to place their bots. Even WhatsApp is testing a pilot program, allowing developers to run their bots from the platform.

At present, bots are either accessed through these web-based applications or through virtual assistants such as Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana. Some brands also offer them as stand-alone apps to act as personal shopping assistants for the consumers.

Even though still in its nascent stages, chatbots are responsive, provide quick services to the users and are a powerful link between brands and their consumers. But like most things on the web, the success of chatbots is largely dependent on content. Chatbots are computer programs that are designed to have good conversations. There a lot of tools on the internet that a layman can use to create the structure of a bot. It is developing the conversational interface that is challenging because unlike humans, bots are not capable of understanding contextual conversation.

While designing content for bots, one thing to keep in mind is that it should give the user exactly what they are looking for. Short and precise content and a perfect balance of images are important for better appeal and utility. This is, however, the somewhat easy part. The real challenge lies in replicating the human behaviour in conversational situations. This is why content creators today need to have an in-depth knowledge of the way people communicate with each other. Nobody would like to interact with a bot that throws up abrupt and unrelated responses. The messages – right from how the bot greets the user to the actual response should feel ‘human-like’. A good chatbot must be able to offer the nearest replicas of real-time communication transactions. This can be ensured by hiring accomplished content agencies.

Chatbots are capable for redefining how businesses communicate with their consumers or target population and are undoubtedly the future of communication and engagement platforms. Designing content for chatbots requires a deep understanding of human behaviour and their reactions. Ultimately, a chatbot is simply a software that has been designed to ‘converse’ with users. It needs human intervention that can transform it from a bot to human-like, and complicated to helpful. Given this newfound opportunity, it would be fair to assume that the importance of expert content agencies will continue to grow in the time to come. Content, still is the King.

By admin Content Management, Content Service Provider, Content Writing bot content, chatbot, chatbot content, content companies in india, Content Service Providers in India, creating content for chatbot Comments Off

16 Jul

How can content writing training help your writing career?

Being a content writer is not just about churning out articles one after the other. It requires a person to play many roles – a reporter, a salesperson, SEO and marketing specialist, an expert. You could be writing for a government website one day and a corporate blog after that. Career as a content writer is a challenging one and the most difficult is striking a balance between presenting your ideas in a simple and forthright yet engaging manner. Pursuing a content writing training program is a sure shot way to succeed as a content writer.

This is something that is achieved with time, practice and training and to accomplish this you should be able to gauge what your audience is looking for and what is the most meaningful way of reaching out to them. However, this is just one aspect of content writing and to establish yourself as an accomplished content writer, you should be able to keep-up with the rapidly changing digital space. This requires constant improvement in skills and knowledge, which can be achieved through training.

Genres of Content

There are also some other important aspects that aspiring content writers must be aware of, such as:

Business Content Writing

Content writing at large means writing for the internet. It takes many forms such as articles, columns, websites and even blogs even though they are comparatively less formal in their language and approach. It is also used as an umbrella term to include business writing (newsletters, power point presentations, proposals etc.); web writing (online columns, e-magazines); marketing and SEO writing, copy writing among others. SEO and marketing being one of the most challenging and in-demand genres in India right now and require a very target-oriented and strategic approach.

Technical Writing

This is a specialized field and people with some sort of technological knowledge about the subject are usually preferred. This genre caters to the demand for white papers, guides, instruction manuals, etc. Basically precise and accurate documents that will provide users with product related technical assistance by transforming complex information into simple user manuals.

Creative Writing

Creative writing goes beyond other forms of writing to capture the unique writing style of a person. It may be fiction, non-fiction, poetry writing, speech writing, script writing, short stories, novels – all are a part of this genre. Copy writing, though used for marketing, is also a considered creative writing as copywriters; especially those in advertising are responsible for the catchy phrases and jingles that engage the audiences.

Content writing training – Processes

Like everything else, writing too involves a process which must be followed to deliver quality content. Although the process will vary as per the writer’s style, there are some basics which remain the same:

Research
Know your audience
Content Development (Drafting, SEO, Image optimization etc.)
Proof reading, Editing
Publishing content online

Knowledge about project management, concepts and techniques of writing are some other important things to know to give your content that edge over others and achieve the desired goals.

Content Writing Training – Tools

Writing is a complex process and there are times when even the most talented writers struggle to produce content. To make the process simpler, there are a plethora of writing tools available that make a writer’s life easy, letting their creativity take over without any hindrances. A writer can utilize some awesome tools for grammar help, plagiarism check, and improving SEO effectiveness of the web content.

A broad outline of our content writing training course is as follows:

U.S. Vs U.K. English
Gender Neutral Language
Plagiarism What? How to detect, control and avoid?
Formal vs Informal Content
Writing for Websites, Blogs
Search Engine friendly content
Newsletters, Magazines
Case Studies
Business Proposals, Pre-sales, RFP, RFI
Company, Management Profile
Brochures
Presentations: Importance, Uses, Types, How to create, How to Deliver (Business communication)
Project reports
Synopsis
White paper
Research paper

Get in touch with us to know how content writing training at Ascezen can help you develop your content writing skills needed to bag a content writer job.

By admin Content Writing, Training content writer, Content Writing Training, Informal Content, marketing, SEO Comments Off

28 Jun

Best Technical Writing Training in Lucknow, India

How does technical writing training help boost your career in technical writing in India?

Technical writing is all about presenting complex information in a manner that is structured, articulate and easy to understand. Often considered similar to content writing, technical writing training takes a different approach involving focus on improving analytical skills, communication skills, writing skills, and knowledge of processes as well content authoring tools and platforms.

Since technical writing is a form of technical communication, it comes within the purview of the definition given by the Society for Technical Communication that defines it as any form of communication that demonstrates the following features:

Communicates about technical or specialized topics, such as computer applications, medical procedures, or environmental regulations
Communicates through printed documents or technology, such as web pages, help files, or social media sites
Provides instructions about how to do something, regardless of the task’s technical nature

It is quite clear that technical writing is vastly different from content writing. While the most common example of content writing is a blog which is a digital diary or journal of sorts wherein you can document anything you like; technical writing covers many different genres. User manuals, product descriptions, white papers, data sheets, are a few examples. Content writing blogs serve the purpose when we need to understand what the content is but when it comes to how to use the content – it is technical writing that comes to our aid. For this purpose, technical writers use a variety of tools to author content, such as:

Desktop publishing tools & word processors (Microsoft Office, Adobe Framemaker, InDesign, QuarkXPress, Apple Pages)
Image editing software (Adobe Photoshop)
Screen capture tools
Help authoring tools
Content Management Platforms ( WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Wiki-based tools)

Good verbal communication skills are a prerequisite to becoming a technical writer but what is equally important is the willingness of a person to get into this genre. More than just authoring documentation & identifying the target audience, one needs to constantly follow standard processes and guidelines. From executing & creating content to delivering and deploying outputs and the various forms in which the outputs are delivered, a technical writer must be aware about everything.

As an aspiring technical writer, your responsibilities extend beyond creating written content and this may include producing visual aids (diagrams, images, illustrations, whiteboard animations, etc.) to complement complex information. To convey it in the most clear, concise and effective way possible, it is also important that you possesses analytical reasoning and questioning abilities along with sound knowledge of computers.

However, these skills cannot be acquired in one day. They take time to learn and are developed over a long cycle either through on the job experiences or in a comprehensive training program that can boost the learning as well as the career growth.

At Ascezen Consulting – a Lucknow based Content Writing Services provider, we provide training to the aspiring writers covering all the important aspects of writing, including tools such as Madcap Flare, Adobe Frame Maker, Screen Capture and Project Management tools. Technical Writing training course at Ascezen Consulting, Lucknow, India includes:

Understanding and Concepts Technical Writing
Need and Application of TW
Documentation Development Lifecycle (Traditional Waterfall Model)
Agile Documentation
Templates
Reporting and formats
Pre-requisites
Technical Writing Essentials:
Various types of documentation deliverables and formats
Samples
Style Guides: Why, How?
English Grammar Refresher
Sentence Construction, Punctuation, Subject-Verb Agreement, Articles, Prepositions
Tools Training:
MS Office, Adobe FrameMaker
- Adobe RoboHelp
Screen Capturing tools: Overview and Usage
Indexing
Single-Sourcing
Collaborative Authoring, Cloud-based Tools
Working with Productivity Tools
Professional Grooming: Soft Skills
Conference Call Etiquettes
Interviewing skills
Email Etiquette
Communication Skills

Get in touch with us to know more about our content writing and technical training courses offered at Lucknow, India and how you can scale up your career in content-driven industry.

By admin Technical Writing, Training, Uncategorized Gender Neutral Language, Informal Content, RFI, RFP, technical writing training india, technical writing training lucknow Comments Off

18 May

Be counted among the Top-notch Content Writers in India

Going digital is no longer a matter of popularity. Having the presence on the world wide web has become a necessity. Businesses in India are shifting their operations online and are constantly working towards gaining a strong foothold on the web using high quality content created by top-notch content writers in India. To produce specific, compelling and targeted content, the search for content writing talent and the best content writers is on.

Content writing, as the name suggests, means writing content for a wide variety of audience available through websites, newsletters and brochures, emails, flyers and so on. Even though writers have always been valued in media and journalism, digitization has given the demand of quality content writers a massive push.

Demand for Content Writers in India

Earlier, content creation in the form of articles, news items and scripts, was limited to media such as print, radio and television. However, with the increasing internet penetration and the need to access information at a few mouse clicks, the world needs many more content writers who can deliver quality content.

For some reasons, despite the increased demand, there is still a considerable scarcity of good content writers in India. Quite a lot of content writers in India are unable to meet the industry standards and produce engaging, effective content. There is a vast difference between the demand and supply of the writers in the country and some reasons that can be understood are as follows:

Societal Perception
Lack of professional content writing training
Inadequate training on the job

There has been a perception in India that writers can never make good money. On top of it, the society and primarily the parents play a dominant role in choosing a career for their child. Mostly with that background, budding writers are seldom motivated to take up writing as a career. So, it is never easy for an aspiring writer to ask parents for sponsoring a training in content writing, technical writing or anything similar.

Like any other profession, content writing too presents its own challenges and opportunities. As traditional marketing is seeing a decline, content writing holds immense potential in its avatar of content marketing and the sheer scale of opportunities that the industry is promising cannot be overlooked.

It wouldn’t be naive to claim that content creation will never become outdated. In fact, right from big corporations to start-ups, everyone will need more content as part of their marketing strategies, especially in this age of user-generated content.

Need for Content Writing Training

Those aspiring writers who take on a content writing or technical job after a few internship stints are trained on the job. Now, it largely depends on the organizations they were employed at or the people they have worked with, to train them as writers. It would purely a game of chance that such interns or junior writers were trained by a professional writer or someone who has good understanding of the domain. A good writer comes out only when the organization is process-driven and doesn’t make an exception for the content department to operate on ad hoc basis. Since most organizations do not have a regular content department in place, they have no means to train and groom people on writing skills.

The answer lies in Training. Today, there are good number of training institutions in India that deliver high quality training in Content Writing, Technical Writing or Instructional Design. The aspiring writers must invest in training themselves to get hired by the high-paying, reputed organizations in India and abroad.

Most people keen on pursuing a career in content writing or development feel that writing ability is the only skill required to become a writer but that is far from being true. Besides having a natural flair for writing, there are other skills needed as well and these can be acquired through structured and balanced content writing training.

At Ascezen Consulting Private Limited – a Lucknow based Content Writing Services Provider, we offer content and technical writing training for aspiring and junior writers to hone their skills and groom them to be ready enough to work for the best IT companies in India.

By admin Content Service Provider, Content Writing Content, content writer, India, lucknow, marketing, uttar pradesh, Writing Comments Off

24 Apr

How does an idle website hurt your business?

On the internet, your website is your identity. If you have a professional looking, dynamic website bundled with engaging content, it will not just attract visitors but compel them to come back again and again. Unfortunately, many businesses that have opted to create a digital presence for themselves have failed to utilize it to its full potential. Find out how does an idle website hurt your business.

What’s an idle website?

An idle website is one that is never updated once it is created. This happens when business owners follow a ‘create and forget’ approach, where in spite of having a well-designed website at hand, it is either lying idle or hasn’t been updated in ages. An idle website is just as good as an apparel store that does not change its display. People may pass by sparing a glance or two, but they will not stay or come back again. Now this cannot be good for any organisation, especially a business.

Having a good website is just the first step in establishing your identity. It is the fresh content and frequent updates that instill the confidence among visitors that you know what you’re doing and you can actually help them. A static website, on the other hand, will result in scepticism and uncertainty.

Another important reason for not leaving your website idle is web rankings. It is the job of the web crawlers to scan the internet for web pages, make note of every update and add it to the search engine’s index. Your site’s ranking changes whenever you update it with quality content. Therefore, frequent updates mean more visibility and higher rankings.

There are several other reasons why an idle website is not good for you, such as:

• Creates a Lasting Impression

Your website reflects your business on the internet and people know when they are being served outdated content. If you want to ensure long-term success, it is important that your site has the ability to engage and compel visitors to come back again and again.

• Communication

A website is the only way of communicating with potential customers until they decide to get in touch with you via e-mail or phone. Even that will depend on whether or not your site is convincing enough to assure them that you have the solutions they look for. The content on you website should be dynamic enough to let them know that you seek innovation and are constantly looking to offer creative solutions.

• Accessibility

Most businesses are not likely to operate through-out day and night. Even if they do, there is some kind of time restriction that needs to be followed. But unlike a brick and mortar presence, websites let visitors have 24/7 access to the information they want. They may visit the site as per convenience without the added pressure of having to avail the services simply because they asked for information.

• Competitive Disadvantage

An idle website will allow your competitor’s to have an edge over you. Think about it – They have a website that they are frequently upgrading with fresh content. This is not only translating to more visitor traffic but is also giving them better web rankings, better visibility and more business. Where does that leave you?

Refreshing your website with new information every now and then builds your credibility and tells your visitors that you understand the importance of being prevalent in the today’s time.

At Ascezen Consulting, we produce engaging content that suits the target audience. Get in touch with us to know how we can help you stay ahead and achieve your business goals.

By admin Content Management, web development Competitive Disadvantage, Content, idle website, search engine, target audience, up to date website, updated website, website content, website development Comments Off

18 Apr

How does Search Engine ranking of your website help your business?

Website – A crucial aspect of Online Identity

For a business, a website is the most crucial aspect of its online identity. A lot of businesses go through the entire process of web designing only to end up with a website that surely looks good but does not yield the desired results. By desired results, we mean the website does not generate enough traffic, thereby affecting its ranking on search engines and ultimately the organisation’s business growth prospects. Bear in mind: Search engine ranking of your website helps your business growth. We already told you why it is important for any business to have its own website and today we will be talking about how they work.

How Search Engines Work

Google, for example, uses software applications called Googlebots that crawl through billions of pages gathering links, words and tags as they go along to create an index of all the information. The Googlebots are always at work hence the index is updated constantly. When we search for something in particular, these bots match those pages to the query and shows results as per the relevance.

This is how search engines work in general. However, each of them uses a distinct formula or ‘algorithm’ which is why the same query will yield different results on Yahoo than it did on Google. These algorithms keep evolving continually as the search engines work towards providing more relevant results.

It is important to note here that the search results don’t just show up in a random order; rather they reflect their ranking. So if a website shows up in the fifth spot, it is indicative that there are four other web pages that the search engines find more relevant.

This factor plays a key role in directing traffic to your website because most people do not go beyond the first two (or, very rarely- three) pages when searching for something. So if your website is not on the first page, chances are that you might be losing out on a lot of potential customers. This process of improving a website’s ranking is called search engine optimization or simply SEO.

Google alone takes into consideration over 200 factors that determine a website’s ranking. Similarly, there are some basic factors that all the search engines rely on, such as:

• High Quality Content
• Backlinks
• Alt Tags
• Technical SEO
• Metadata Optimisation

Of all the factors mentioned above, content is undoubtedly the most crucial consideration for search engines. An informative yet easy to understand website goes a long way in improving site traffic and ranking. The content should be original, presentable and supplemented with appropriate images and videos. It should be intent-specific i.e. it should clearly spell out what your business seeks to achieve and how you plan to achieve it.

When populating content, it is no longer sufficient to focus solely on keywords. Search engines now take into account whether the content suits the users’ intent or not. Hence, it is important that the website provides and is constantly updated with high-quality, organic content that genuinely addresses the visitors’ needs in the most natural tone possible. Such relevant websites are bound to have better overall rankings and visitor traffic which will translate to more business leads.

At Ascezen, we have a team of professionals adept at web and content development. We give shape to your ideas by creating appealing, interactive websites that are optimised for search engines. Get in touch with us to know how we can take you closer to attaining your business goals.

By admin Content Writing, Search Engine Optimization Alt Tags, Backlinks, business growth, content development, High Quality Content, Metadata Optimisation, natural search, search engine, search engine marketing, search engine rankings, Technical SEO Comments Off

07 Apr

Content Marketing Strategy: An Unbeatable Practice

Content Marketing has become the heart of marketing strategies and rightly so. Why is Content Marketing Strategy: An Unbeatable Practice? It is because not only does it help a business to grow but also nurtures relationships with customers – an aspect that distinguishes it from traditional marketing. The idea is to inform and educate your customers about your business and services. Today, consumers have become less likely to respond to traditional tactics and would rather make decisions based on their judgement. They don’t like to be just sold things- a behaviour that holds true for both B2C and B2B customers.

This is where content marketing comes into the picture. Unlike traditional marketing, it relies on building a trustworthy rapport with the prospective customers and instead of creating a new demand, content marketing focuses on anticipating and meeting an existing need for information.

Your Content Marketing Strategy must aim to:

Provide credible information to consumers
Generate and attract attention
Build a relationship with consumers
Increase brand awareness
Improve online sales
Increase the customer base
Encourage brand loyalty

Given how effective content marketing has proven to be in converting leads into sales, it is no surprise that everyone is trying to churn out more and more information. However, not all of this information is credible or useful. The result of which is a cluttered digital environment where consumers are swamped with mediocre content; a situation which is not favourable either for the businesses or the consumers.

Depending on the organisational goals, every business needs a different approach to stand out among the rest. Content marketing is a process that needs to be constantly updated to recognise and predict the information requirements of a specific audience, making it vital to strategize accordingly.

At Ascezen Consulting, we take the time to thoroughly understand the requirements of our clients before suggesting the following solutions for an appropriate strategy:

Blogs

Because they are so accessible, blogs are the perfect platform to build relationships with potential customers. People enjoy reading them and if regularly updated with well-written and informative articles, they can prove to be an efficient way of converting leads into sales.

Videos

Videos are more engaging and are likely to leave a more lasting impact on people in comparison to textual content. They can be shared on the organisation’s website, blog posts or social media posts.

Social Media

Social media gives you the freedom to decide how and what you want to communicate to the people. Its ability to let organisations interact with its target audience definitely makes it the most powerful channel for content marketing.

Infographics

Infographics is one of the most effective methods to bundle lot of information in a way that is clear, visually appealing and yet can be easily retained by the audience. A simple and clean design will go a long way in spreading the message without overwhelming the audience.

Images

Adding relevant images to social media and blog posts or simply using them on their own can greatly enhance the utility of the message being put across. Humans are visual learners and as cliché as it may sound, a picture is indeed worth a thousand words.

Brochures & White Papers

Brochures and white papers are useful tools to disseminate complex information. They can include images and graphs. They are quite useful when it comes to showcasing areas of expertise and persuading potential consumers.

Apps

Mobile apps help businesses to reach out to a wider audience by distributing product information. They have also proven to be helpful in building customer loyalty as it makes consumers feel more engaged with an organisation.

The right content marketing strategy can take you ahead of your competitors and help you reach your goals. Get in touch with us to know how we can help you build an effective content marketing strategy that will benefit you and your business.

By admin Content Marketing blogs, brochures, Content Marketing, content marketing strategy, infographics, social media, videos, white papers Comments Off

07 Mar

Can a website help grow business?

In the technological age when almost everything else has gone digital, it only makes sense for companies – either big or small to make their online presence felt as well. An increasing number of businesses are opting for the digital space not just through social media platforms, but also through their own websites. Even today, many people might ask: Can a website help grow business? Here’s why must you really get a website for your business.

People rely on the internet more than anything else for information and as a result, websites have become a fundamental requirement for companies as not only do they add credibility but are also more convenient, economical and effective in engaging potential clients. Today, having a website is almost next to having an e-mail address or a physical address – most people assume that your business already has a website and a lack of one might be the reason why you are losing out to your competitors.

Why is having a website important?

Increasing Visibility:

Even if people know about an organization, they may still prefer to familiarize themselves with the products/services offered and having a website will be more convenient for people as they are more likely to prefer browsing through a website than going to the physical location right at the outset.

Ensures Credibility:

A website is the perfect tool to gauge the trustworthiness of a company. Potential clients can explore what the business is all about and may leave feedback and reviews that further spread the word and bring in more business.

Accessibility:

Unlike a brick and mortar setup, a website is easily accessible 24/7. It can be visited any time of the day or night as per convenience and is not restricted to only business hours. Clients can leave their queries and ask for more information without the added pressure of having to buy the products or services.

Advertising Tool:

Online advertising and SEO are effective ways to boost traffic on websites. Most of the traffic on websites comes through search engines and a strategically designed website can go a long way in targeting visitors to meet their specific requirements which will in turn translate to more business.

Cost Effective:

Having a website is more economical than traditional advertising methods. Developing and putting a website online involves moderate costs and even updating and revising content on a website comes at a minimal cost as compared to the expensive production/editing costs of T.V, radio, print or outdoor media.

Analytics & Information:

A website provides complete control on information. There are analytical tools, which can help identify the visitors on a website in great detail, what type of information they were looking for, their preferences etc. These tools make it much easier to track the over-all perception and reputation of the organization.

Essential Elements in a Website

That being said, simply having a website is not enough, it’s having an effective one that makes a difference. When someone visits a website, the first thing that comes to notice is what it looks and feels like so it becomes important to have a professional looking website that equally focuses on the needs of the visitors and the organization.

It is more than an electronic catalogue and to be taken seriously, it should include the following elements:

Clearly communicates the purpose
Showcases reliability
Clean and user-friendly design
Easy to navigate
Relevant and engaging content that is updated regularly
Scope for future expansion
Increase traffic on website

It is pretty evident that a website is crucial for any organization: business or non-profit and not having a strong web presence can put it at a serious disadvantage. If properly planned and executed, a well- designed and actively maintained website can go a long way in meeting the goals and developing long-term relationships with clients.

Get in touch with us to find out how to make the most of your business website even if you already have one. We might know why it may not be helping in achieving your business goals.

By admin web development business growth, online marketing, SEO, web marketing, website design, website helps, website marketing Comments Off

02 Dec

Why does your Business need Content Marketing?

Why do you need Content Marketing?

The marketing world in its entirety believes in the immense potential of Content Marketing. It is quite contextual in nature and this makes it very hard to provide a specific definition of the term. How a content marketing strategy is implemented depends from person to person or rather from organization to organization. Although a single, all-inclusive definition of this concept may not be present, various experts have tried their hand at defining it from time to time.

Gartner defines content marketing as “the process and practice of creating, curating and cultivating text, video, images, graphics, e-books, white papers and other content assets that are distributed through paid, owned and earned media. These assets are used to tell stories that help brands build and nurture relationships with customers, prospects and other audiences to drive awareness, generate demand, influence preference and build loyalty.”

According to Content Marketing Institute, “Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience–with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

To put it simply, content marketing is about marketing of an organization or a brand through sharing insightful, educational or entertaining information using channels such as blogs, pictures, e-books, audio-video, social media posts, infographics and so on. The purpose is to influence the user, stimulate interest in a product/service or influence a purchase decision.

Depending upon content strategy, here are a few channels for content marketing:

Blog posts
Emails
Videos
Social media posts
Infographics
Assessments
Images
Apps
Podcasts

Content marketing can help your organization in a number of ways. Here are a few reasons why you should focus on it:

To Improve your search engine result rankings

Content can help you earn a better rank in the search engine results. Regularly posting relevant content will increase your chances to be found. It can help enhance the effect of your SEO efforts. Quality content will attract more traffic to your website, thus improving its authority and relevance.

If your content is created strategically and meets the expectations of your audience, you can have a better place in the search engine rankings.

To grow your web traffic

There are a number of ways content can help you in generating more traffic. Some of them are:

Efficient distribution and sharing of content
Blog posts offering useful information
Connecting with users through social media posts

For better lead generation and conversion rates

Content provides you a way to connect with your target audience/customers. It offers a number of insights for identifying prospective customers and converting them. Appropriate and engaging content will make your users spend more time on the website and increase your chances of influencing their decision. High quality, informative content will help you build trust between you and your target audience and increase the conversion rate. Here are a few ways you can generate lead through content marketing:

Create engaging, high-quality content
Offer your audience an incentive
Pay attention to inbound marketing
Address your audience through a webinar
Use testimonials and case studies

To ensure users give your website more time

If you keep posting relevant and informative content regularly, the users will spend more time going through your website. This will improve your chances of influencing them and convincing them to use your service or product.

To increase brand awareness

Offering great content will help you produce brand awareness. If you think your content is much more than self- promotion, endorse it through social networking sites. This way you can stand out among your competitors as most of them would focus only on content related to sales promotion. This is a great way to earn recognition in the market.

Providing valuable content on regular basis will also help you strengthen your relationship with your customers. They may also become your brand advocate and promote and share your content, thus generating more traffic.

For building a strong relationship with customers

Engaging content will help you in building and maintaining a strong relationship with your customers. As mentioned earlier, content which focuses on things beyond sales and promotion will definitely intrigue the users. Provide valuable tips and information through your content so that your audience may find it of great value.

It will not be wrong to say that content is still the king, even after all these years. In order to make the most out of it, you need to keep up with the ever changing trends in the world of content marketing. Being clear about your goals and knowing your target audience are a few prerequisites of framing an effective content marketing strategy.

If done right, content marketing can help you reach your organizational goals and stand out among your competitors.

At Ascezen Consulting Pvt Ltd, we produce engaging, usable and enriching content that attracts the target audience and helps in building a relationship of trust. This is what makes our content writing services rank among the best content writing companies in India. Get in touch with us to know how we can help you gain attention and build rapport with your customers.

By admin Content Marketing content is king, content strategy, infographics, search engine, SEO, social media, target audience Comments Off

18 Nov

On-page SEO vs. Off-page SEO: What do you really need?

Having an efficient online marketing strategy is vital if you want to thrive in today’s business world. Making a functional, user-friendly website is just the first step! You need to use SEO to impress the search engine bots so that they give you a good ranking. And as it goes, if you cannot be found in the first two pages of Google search results, you probably don’t exist. Luckily there are ample tools out there that can help you win this battle!
The job of a search engine is to find what is most relevant to what a user is searching for. It has certain criteria to determine this relevancy such as:

• Content
• User Experience
• Website performance
• Authority

Now that you know what search engines want, here are a few things which they definitely don’t want:

• Poor User Experience
• Purchased links
• Keyword stuffing

Solution:

You need a website with content that can make a good impact on search engines. The process is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) .
SEO focuses on optimizing a website so that it has relevant content of high quality for searchers as well as the search engines. It is also about promoting the website externally, i.e. through various methods like blogging, social sharing, social bookmarking and more.

So why do you need SEO?

If you are still asking this question, you really need to up your game! Over 67 per cent of searches are converted in a click for one of the results on the first page of the search engine result. That is exactly where you should be if you are willing to be found! SEO helps you attract more traffic to your page and increase market access. It can also effectively boost the effect of other marketing strategies such as pay per click (PPC) and retargeting.
Search Engine Optimization can be divided into two categories: On-page SEO and Off-page SEO.

On-Page SEO

The name is self-explanatory! On–page SEO focuses on the pages of your website in terms of content as well as the backend of the website. It involves improving the web pages on your site in order to secure a better rank in the search engine results. Here you are in-charge of a number of factors which affect the rankings. The main on-page SEO factors are:

• Keywords and phrases
• Meta description
• Title tags
• Robots.txt
• XML sitemap
• Website performance
• Internal linking and anchor text
• Heading tags
• Search engine friendly (SEF) URL

Off-page SEO

If on-page SEO is all about your website, off-page is all about the measures taken outside your website in order to improve your rankings. It includes link-building through leaving comments on blogs, participating in forums, guest blogging, outreach and more. Reviews, brand mentions and social amplifications also hold importance in off-page optimization.

“The number and the quality of links leading to your website is taken into consideration by Google when ranking a website.”

For Google, backlinks are like a vote; it is a sign that someone outside your website trusts your content and recommends you. The main techniques used in off-page optimization are:
• Social sharing
• Guest blogging
• Brand mentions
• Manual link-building
• Self-created links

On-Page vs. Off-page…What will work best for you?

To be honest, On-page and Off-page SEO are two different processes with identical objectives. Although you need both for best results, experts are of the view that you should tackle On-page optimization before you move to Off-page SEO. The idea here is simple—make sure your content is worth promoting before you go out there are promote it!

Why should you begin with On-page SEO?

Search engines are network applications that understand a specific language. SEO especially on-page optimization involves focusing on the language search engines will understand so that they know what your website is all about. Giving them more relevant signals will increase your chances of getting a better rank.
It is only when you have taken care of everything which comes under on-page optimization you should move to off-page.
For those of you who run a small business and target local customers, On-page optimization is all you may require. If you want to reach limited users through your website, using relevant content, tags, keywords, meta-description etc. are enough to do the job.
On-page optimization, when done right, leads to enhanced user experience. A website that offers relevant information, easy navigation and a user friendly interface is what the searchers are looking for. Make sure your content is engaging and utilizes all the targeted keywords appropriately. Not only this, you also need to concentrate on the usability of your website. On-page is what you need to ensure your target users or customers find your website useful!

And remember…

Done and Dusted? Not really!

Search engine optimization isn’t a one-time thing. You need to tweak and update your website regularly in order to keep up with the ever-changing digital trends. When changes are made in a website, its SEO parameters become outdated. This is why both on-page as well as off-page optimization require constant attention.

Content is still the King!

Any search engine optimization can’t help you if your website does not provide unique, engaging and relevant content. Also, if your website offers really good content, other websites will readily offer backlinks to you. Before you set out on your journey to the first page of search engines results, make sure what you are offering is worth the time your users will spend on it!

By admin Content Marketing, Search Engine Optimization Content, link building, marketing, offpage seo, onpage seo, Search Engine Optimization, SEO Comments Off

06 Jan

Importance of Infographics in Marketing

Do you make use of Infographics in Marketing?

Use of infographics in marketing in very common these days. In this age of big data, the entire gamut of digital marketing has shifted towards processing data and information. In such an environment, it is almost binding that the presentation of data be in a lucid format that allows users to analyze and arrive at a certain decision about a product, service or trend. So, putting your data represented in an infographic form is one of the game-changing aspects that may usher in unprecedented returns for your investments.

What is an Infographic?

An Infographic is the graphical representation of a data or set of data. An Infographic data form basically repaints mundane or at times, complex information in a manner that gets a trending response from its subscribers.

Why an Infographic?

It is often noticed that complex piece of information such as metrics or comparison of trends over years, geographies or among competitors in plain numeric or textual form, is usually hard to analyze. Plain depiction of tabular data often poses a cognitive barrier between the information and the user.

While on the other hand, the same data when arranged in forms of graphs and charts, becomes highly convenient for audience to not only understand and analyze but to also use it further. This simple phenomenon makes Infographics very useful resource for your business.

Does it help to use Infographics in marketing?

Just like the company logo or other branding material, Infographics help you develop that special connect with your customers. Once they like your campaigns that use memorable illustrations, the brand recall improves considerably and your potential customers are likelier to remember you at the right time.

How to develop a good Infographic?

Designing a good infographic, first of all, requires a deep understanding of the company’s business: products, services, customers and target base. This determines the information that needs to be presented for everyone’s consumption. It is necessary to ensure that it does not go against the business ethics or is not debatable.

The next step towards developing attractive infographics is to acquire an expert graphic designer who can visualize and translate this data into visually appealing creatives that can attract maximum attention once shared across various platforms.

Who can develop a good Infographic for you?

While the idea of developing an Infographic might sound simple, yet you should know that it requires sophistication and a certain skill set. Remember that a poor design may bring more of harm than utility to your brand.

Of course, the best infographic content will come from your business development team itself. However, it might serve better to get fresh ideas from an agency. So, it is wiser to hire a creative agency with proper credentials as well ensure that the team members on board are mature enough to understand your business dynamics.

Ascezen Consulting is one such agency that can deliver quality infographics within the budget constraints.

Why Ascezen?

The team behind Ascezen Consulting Pvt. Ltd. carries vast industry experience. The talent that has been delivering for some of the most prominent brands in IT, Retail and Hospitality sectors will now be focused to create value for your brand, while putting latest tools and best practices available at your disposal.

By admin DIgital Marketing, Graphic Design Services, Instructional Designing Ascezen Consulting Pvt, Business Content, graphics for marketing, infographic, infographic in makreting, infographics, IT, marketing, metrics, presentation, role of graphics in marketing, social media marketing Comments Off

19 Dec

Outsource Digital Marketing or Social Media Marketing to an Agency?

Why Outsource Digital Marketing?

Are you ready to outsource digital marketing or the social media operations to a third party agency? With growing competition in social media or digital marketing and its huge impact in brand and reputation building, it might serve well to outsource digital marketing or the social media operations to a third party agency. However, the notion of outsourcing often sparks the debate on DIY vs Outsource. Reason for this reluctance is attributed to certain incidents in the past whereby social media campaigns for very popular brands went awry, almost costing their reputation.

Noteworthy, the A-listers of the industry are still actively outsourcing their social media marketing portfolio to be managed by a third party consultant. Therefore, first of all we take a look as to why exactly should we hire an external agency.

Expertise

It is not easy to maintain the top ranking in social media circles. An agency however can ensure, owing to its specialization on insights, what will work wonders for you and what wouldn’t. Dedicating enough time for social media marketing might distract you from your core operations whereas an expert of social media marketing works 24×7 to keep your campaigns updated on following parameters:

Who’s the target audience?
What are the latest social media platforms and how are they suitable for a particular line of business?
What should be the frequency of posting content?
What time of the day gets the maximum engagement depending on the product and target set?
What’s the best form of content to share on a particular social media platform?
How to track social media success for a particular campaign?
How much does current campaign contribute in increasing the followers and traffic to the website? Performance makes the bottom-line. Right?

Time

Ever came across an aesthetically appealing and informative post on Facebook that caught your attention and impressed you? And then you also shared it with your team as well as your peers.

It is worth making a note that such content requires time to develop and does not materialize within minutes. While you may have time to develop such content, do consider the fact as to which other task deserved more of your time?

If the trade-off seems that good to you, only then you may choose not to hire a dedicated consultant or an agency for social media marketing.

Save Money

Hiring a digital marketing agency is usually a far economical option, as compared to hiring an in-house consultant. Simple reason being that an individual may not be good at each and every aspect of social media like devising strategies, content development, creating visuals or short animated videos, and eventually tracking its success through analytics. In such a scenario, hiring an external agency is always a better option as it brings specialized individuals to your service.

Besides, an external social media marketing agency also plays a crucial role in keeping your brand abreast of latest industry trends as well as track your competition on this particular front. However, given the serious nature of the task as well as the amount of sensitive information invested in it, it is of utmost importance to choose an agency working on higher parameters of ethics, professionalism as well as expertise.

With that, comes a proposition that meets all your social media marketing management related needs.

Ascezen Consulting Pvt. Ltd. is a reliable name you can consider while making the decision to outsource digital marketing. Ascezen fits the bill with its dedicated team of professionals well versed in digital marketing strategies , analyzing campaigns, graphic designing and content development. We, at Ascezen Consulting, realize that social media marketing is a means for you to promote your business goals online.

As such we take the initiative of working as an internal team, in close co-ordination with your core team. What distinguishes us from the others is the effort we put in understanding the overall history and context of your campaigns. This extra step of groundwork is what brings the difference in our social media marketing campaigns. Plus we ensure that we duly meet all the SLAs provided.

Working with Ascezen, you get a commitment of high levels of business ethics, professionalism and expertise.

By admin Content Writing, DIgital Marketing analytics, animated videos, digital marketing agency india, DIY, graphic design, metrics, outsource social media, outsourcing digital marketing, short videos, social media, social media management, social media marketing, target audience, visual design Comments Off

07 Dec

Digital Marketing Spread: SEO

Digital Marketing begins with Search Engine Optimization

Under Digital Marketing services, it augurs well to start off with a website that primarily serves its purpose by fulfilling the information needs of the target audience.

Search Engine Optimization or SEO for a website belongs to a rather recent genre of web technology since the inception of internet. There was a time when your website was perceived as merely a cosmetic tool for registering your brand presence on the World Wide Web. With the concept of E-Commerce gaining more roots and increasing competition, your website evolved further into a reach multiplying tool. However, today it is a different story.

As we speak, your website has evolved into your business extension outlet, open 24×7, directing new customers to your business as well as taking your brand into relatively newer markets. It also enables you to attain better conversion rates. Now since websites don’t do it on their own, the process that enables them to do so is called – Search Engine Optimization or SEO.

What is SEO?

SEO is a digital marketing strategy which affects the visibility of your website in the search results displayed by any search engine, primarily Google. These results, featuring your website or not, are given by search engines in response to a certain set of keywords or a phrase posted by an internet user. Closer the content of your website matches with the keyword sought by user, higher will be your visibility ranking in the search results page. Other content parameters that play a significant role are: originality, simplicity, correctness, meaningfulness and readability.

For example, a random user types Digital Marketing Services Lucknow, and you are a Digital Marketing agency based in Lucknow, SEO will ensure that your website content is “optimized” to match the query of that user or any other users as well seeking similar results. The “optimized” content is naturally the content with the highest ranking by a search engine such as Google.

Who does SEO?

A lots of agencies will tell you – ‘Not everyone can do SEO, only agencies are good at it and hence, authorized to do it for you.’

We believe anyone can do SEO, provided they do not have any other business concern to delve into. Reason being that SEO is:

A constant process: SEO is not a one-time solution, rather a continuous process to achieve organic growth.
An evolving dimension: Technologies and processes change almost every alternate day.
Time taking process: Neither is SEO instant. Rather results are derived by a sustained and planned strategy implemented over a period of time.

Having said that, there are some people who love to customize their bikes, modify their cars, able to personalize their office computers, configure software, and do SEO simultaneously. However, there are other set of people who realize the fact that every field required specialized professionals who excel at bringing about the industry standard results. And that they love doing their job!

Therefore, for anyone who seeks their website ranked top in search results, would certainly opt for a dedicated specialized digital marketing agency for SEO.

How to determine a good Digital Marketing Services Agency?

In the realm of SEO, there are a lot of strategies to be employed, with the objective of pushing the ranking of your website higher in the search results. However, a few of these practices are discouraged uniformly by all search engines. These techniques usually will stuff your website with a content that is laced with keywords, however will be of little benefit to the end user.

As such, your website will definitely be ranked higher for a certain amount of time. However, in the long run it will not only ruin your brand name, defer your original customer base but also might affect in your website getting blacklisted by the search engine.

A lot of Digital Marketing services agencies promise quick results with SEO. Most of these utilize the discouraged SEO practices or Black Hat SEO as it is more commonly known. White Hat SEO, on the other hand, focuses on objective building of your Website’s architecture, design and content. This results in not only building your website ranking generically, but also maintains the ranking as the content is found relevant to users’ requirements. Going a step further, it also extrapolates your website content to the ever expanding social media by means of blogs, tweets, mentions or posts that would in turn lead the users to your website.

A good Digital Marketing services provider, therefore, excels not only in the excellent content building, and keeping the SEO keyword policies updated in your website SEO but also in its integration with the relevant social media platforms.

Why choose Ascezen Consulting?

Ascezen Consulting understands that your website is more of Sales-driven platform and therefore it should be easy to reach. We ensure that it is built in such a way that it is able to register high in rankings as compared to your competitor. Since its inception, Ascezen specializes in offering Digital Marketing services to the prominent corporate clients as well as startup ventures. As such our worklabs are always updated on every new trend in the scope of Digital Marketing services that begins with SEO.

At Ascezen, we promise results far exceeding expectations. Ask Why? Because we can.

Visit our digital marketing services pags for a detailed overview.

By admin DIgital Marketing competitor research, Content, Digital Marketing, keyword research, keyword search, keywords, metrics, natural search, optimize website, optimized content, organic growth, reporting, search engine, Search Engine Optimization, search results, SEO Comments Off

03 Mar

eLearning: Choosing the Right Authoring Tool

eLearning in India and everywhere else in the world is slated to achieve a higher growth rate in future with its growing demand and adoption amongst the learners and trainers of all age-groups. eLearning is the learning delivered, supported, and exemplified through digital technologies and media. It includes Online Courses, Computer based Training, Web based training, and any other form to facilitate learning using any web-enabled devices such as a computer, laptop, tablet or a mobile phone. Developing elearning material requires thorough understanding in the fields of education, multimedia, publishing, and digital technologies. Ascezen Consulting offers eLearning solutions using cutting edge elearning authoring tools to empower its clients significantly.

Developing an eLearning module requires meticulous planning and efforts. eLearning developers understand their target audience before developing focused learning material. Their major objective is to design a module keeping in mind the learning objectives of the target audience.

The elearning developers work on following aspects before developing an eLearning course:

Preparing the eLearning material according to the target audience
Planning the course material or lesson list hierarchy
Story-boarding for courses, modules and lessons
Selecting the right tools for developing eLearning material
Translating the storyboards into an interactive and engaging elearning course

It has been found that selecting the appropriate tool for eLearning development remains an important question for many clients. Several eLearning authoring tools are available in the marketplace. Sheer abundance of authoring tools makes its challenging to choose the best authoring tool that meet author’s demands without exceeding the client’s budget.

Each eLearning tool has its pros and cons. Well-informed decision based on the learners’ requirements needs to be taken while selecting the most appropriate tool for development. Most e-learning authoring tools available today are rapid authoring tools that enable a person to create training content without having exceptional technical skills.

Factors to consider while choosing the e-learning tool:

Complexity of Courseware:

Select a basic or sophisticated authoring tool based on the complexity of your courseware.

Creative Freedom Versus Easy-to-use interface:

A highly significant aspect of choosing an eLearning authoring tool is creative freedom versus simple interface. Some eLearning development tools offer a wide range in eLearning design while the simpler ones may not offer much freedom in terms of creativity.

Level of Interactivity:

Select the appropriate authoring tool based on the level of interactivity required in your courseware. For instance, What kind of training component you plan to make? Will it require more of interactive assessments, and simulations?

Assess skills of eLearning Design and Development Team:

Select an authoring tool depending upon author’s capability. It is highly significant to analyze the skills of your eLearning design and development team before choosing eLearning software.

Analyze Learners’ requirements:

eLearning Design and Development Team should analyze the learner’s requirements before selecting the appropriate tool. It is imperative to have knowledge about your learners’ skills, preferred learning modes, and technical limitations such access to technology.

Delivery Method:

Delivery method of your eLearning course should also be taken into consideration before selecting the appropriate authoring tool. How will you impart your course: online, offline or largely through a mobile device?

Budget Constraints:

One of the most important aspects is the budget requirements of your courseware. Selection of authoring tools should consider the budget constraints.

Some of the finest e-learning development tools include:

Adobe Captivate:

A part of Adobe eLearning suite, Adobe Captivate is one of the most popular eLearning development tools among eLearning professionals, students and educators all over the world. It is a user-friendly tool requiring little technical prowess. Some focused training and practice will help the developer get going. It offers excellent editing along with drag and drop components.

Usability:

Adobe Captivate can be used for creating interactive simulations, software demonstrations, and quizzes. It offers audio synchronization, text/graphic animations, publishing option for both web and LMS delivery and interactive components.

Output Formats:

Output files can be produced in a number of file formats including AVI. Adobe Captivate 8 is the latest version of this e-learning development tool.

Additional Features:

Adobe Captivate offers a number of options to choose different control bars from the gallery and carry out further customizations with various color schemes. It enables users to create their very own project skin by building it in Captivate Master Slides or developing it in Flash. Features such as widgets, text-to-speech, a quiz analyzer and aggregator, and a quiz have been added to the tool in order to increase its functionality.

MadCap Mimic:

MadCap Mimic is a part of the MadCap MadPak, an authoring suite comprising of MadCap Mimic, MadCap Echo, MadCap Capture and MadCap Flare. This software simulation and multimedia authoring tool allows the user to create fully interactive videos, movies, presentations, tutorials of software or systems, and simulations. The latest version of the tool is MadCap Mimic 7.

Usability:

This tool offers powerful single-sourcing features, video support for iOS, YouTube and others, multiple recording modes, multi-language support, seamless integration with MadCap Flare and others. MadCap Flare is a popular technical writing tool used for creating Online helps, User Manuals and others as well. Integration of MadCap Mimic with MadCap Flare ensures incorporation of Mimic outputs into Flare projects.

Output Formats:

It is capable of generating output in a variety of formats including Silverlight, Flash, Adobe, Mimic Movie Format, HTML5, PDF, Microsoft, XPS, AIR, and Adobe.

Additional Features:

Mimic has a variety of single–sourcing features which help save time and energy by creating content once and reusing it several times. These features are targets, palettes, condition tags, variables, and frame libraries. The users can import Microsoft PowerPoint presentations as well.

Camtasia Studio:

TechSmith’s Camtasia Studio offers all the requisite tools to record computer screen and then convert the recording into well-made professional videos. Developers can share their work directly from the app on various platforms including Screencast.com, YouTube, and Google Drive.

Usability:

It is a user-friendly tool that helps to record screen while capturing Web Pages, Software Demos and PowerPoint Slides. It enables in importing media, adding interactive elements and then editing video with the help of Camtasia’s huge variety of editing tools. The videos can be shared on almost any device.

Output Formats:

After the editing, the developers can export a movie to a variety of formats such as AVI, MP4, SWF, MOV, RM, MPV, Silverlight-compatible WMV and animated GIF or MP3.

Additional Features:

The tools allow users to apply captions, inset title pages, video clips or pictures, add soundtrack and more. Users can highlight the cursor movements or mouse clicks to ensure better understanding of the recorded actions. Camtasia offers Voice Narration, Transition Options, Pan Effect, Quizzing, Zoom Option, and other efficient finishing tools.

eLearning design and development is an intricate process requiring collective efforts of the entire team. Choosing the right development tool is an important aspect of developing an eLearning resource.

Ascezen Consulting offers comprehensive eLearning design and development services across India. We offer a wide range of eLearning services including courseware development, development of training material like training guides, presentations and videos.

eLearning team at Ascezen Consulting is competent to develop:

Computer-Based Trainings
Web-Based Trainings
Storyboards
Voice Over Scripts
Instructor-Led Trainings
Training Guides
Demonstration Videos
How-To Videos

We are a potential eLearning partner for SMEs across the globe. Ascezen’s commitment towards offering effective and cost saving services makes us the preferred choice among the eLearning service providers in India.

By admin Creating Videos, e-learning Adobe Captivate, Camtasia Studio, elearning development, elearning in india, elearning provider india, elearning tools, Madcap Mimic 0 Comments

03 Oct

Technical Writing Tools for Online Help Authoring

Online Help Authoring Tools

Technical writing can be described as simplifying complex information, concepts or procedures so that the users or readers are able to accomplish some goal or task. A technical writer uses a range of technical writing tools and skills to create easily understandable content for the targeted audience. Most technical writing companies in India such as Ascezen Consulting use a variety of documentation or technical writing tools according to a project’s needs or client specifications.

Various technical writing tools are used by technical writers for designing, creating, publishing and maintaining documents, manuals, and files. These tools reduce the effort and time to create documentation files by providing all the essential features and utilities to create, organize, present, and publish understandable content for the users.

Benefits of using Help Authoring Tools

Online help authoring or documentation tools allow technical writers to create the most accurate, complete, and effective help manuals without spending extra time and duplicating effort to generate various output formats such as online help, user manuals or something for handheld devices. Single-sourcing online help authoring tools such as Adobe Robohelp and Madcap Flare can produce online help simultaneously in CHM format, context sensitive webhelp and even offline documentation such as eBooks, printed user manuals and PDFs.

Single sourcing

With the help of single sourcing feature, technical writers only have to create the content just once, without the need to maintain separate copies for all the output formats, thus resulting in saving time and effort. It also prevents rework or updating each output format separately.

Some of the common output formats include:

PDF – It is the most common format used for documents, manuals, and files and shared on the web. It suits well for viewing on the computer or printing the manuals.

CHM – It is based on HTML format and offers various formatting options, embedding of videos, images and hyperlinks.

Web Help – It shares common features with CHM and allows the user to post HTML files to the website. It helps in updating documentation and is effective for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tactics.

WYSIWYG editor

It is an acronym used for “What You See Is What You Get.” It allows the user to see the printed document exactly as how it appears to the end users.

Screen Capture Tools

Screen capture tools such as SnagIT, Madcap Capture, RoboScreenCapture, or Fullshot can be used for collecting and editing screenshots to demonstrate the use of any software or device in the best possible way.

Image & Photo Editing Tools

Simple Image & Photo Editing tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office Picture Manager or Microsoft Paint can be used to create, edit or post the most appropriate images according to documentation requirement.

Video Creation & Editing Tools

All of us know that videos are becoming one of the most effective ways of learning to do new things. Video Creation & Editing tools such as Adobe Captivate, Madcap Mimic, Camtasia allow the technical writers to create, capture, edit and post user-assistance or learning videos on the web.

Some Popular Technical Writing Tools

Adobe RoboHelp

RoboHelp is one of the leading technical writing tools that are used for developing web-based help such as HTML help, WebHelp and JavaHelp. Apart from being used for webhelp, it is also used for developing simple tutorials and help manuals. It is considered as one of the standard help authoring tools in technical documentation arena.

RoboHelp allows technical writers to import Microsoft Word, Adobe FrameMaker and Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) files and automatically map styles and tables of contents (TOC).

The latest version of RoboHelp allows technical writers to customize headers and footers in printed documentation and create single-click HTML5 publishing with ease. At the same time, they can manage shared resources on the cloud, create online help for mobile apps and help online and offline viewers.

Madcap Flare

MadCap Flare is also very popular among the technical writing tools used to create technical documentation such as user manuals, software documentation, online help and policy & procedure manuals. This online help authoring tool is very useful in creating, publishing and managing content to multiple formats such as print, desktop, online and mobile. It not only makes the documentation efficient, but also reduces processing time and related costs.

The documentation offers control to technical writers in designing technical documentation. They get full Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) support and can use multiple CSS files for a variety of components and mediums.

It supports high-end image graphics and provides various options to create content according to different requirements such as print-ready PDF, web, desktop and mobile.

Since all the files and documentation in a Flare project are in XML format, the software helps in sending the entire project out for translation, instead of just the output.

Summary

With the help of these technical writing tools, technical writers can do wonders with online help and support material. They can turn even the most complex documentation or technology into a simple and comprehensible content with the help of help authoring tools. These tools are very helpful for technical writers to get their creativity and imagination roam freely.

Due to constant advancements in computer technology, more productive help authoring tools are being introduced often, so it is important for writers to get updated at regular intervals.

Ascezen Consulting trains the aspiring technical writers on almost all of the leading technical writing tools used in the industry. Get in touch to know more about the technical writing training course at Ascezen.

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By admin Technical Writing Ascezen Consulting, CHM, documentation tools, Online Help Authoring Tools, PDF, technical writing companies in India, technical writing tools, technical writing training course, WYSIWYG 0 Comments

12 Aug

Use Short Videos to Promote your Business

We have come a long way when it comes to using ways to promote a business. It used to be billboards, magazines or newspapers a lot time ago. Today, the best way to attract and engage the customers could begin with a short video to promote your business by leaving an impressive message, quickly. Use of short videos to promote your business can get magical results for you.

Use of short videos for advertising picked up with Television ads when we could see people getting hooked on to get the message that was dying to reach them through other media. Whether it is an elevator pitch or a sales pitch, any message can be beautifully delivered through a video with catchy phrases, punch lines, colorful fonts, impressionable imagery, and a dialogue form.

In the initial days of television advertising, people tried to avoid the ads by lowering the volume but today, most people enjoy watching them. With popularity of new media and the booming young population using them, videos have become a powerful tool of communication. A sample video can be seen below.

The video inserted above talks about the business writing services offered by Ascezen Consulting. There can be videos talking about how to use a product or a tool. You can create one for anything you would like to demonstrate or use in training. This one has been created using a pretty simple video creation tool but there is good deal of thinking, planning, and design work before you get that short video to say it all.

It is challenging indeed to keep your message short enough to be covered in a video. As an entrepreneur, you might have volumes to say about the products or services you offer but your audience has limited time. You can’t have their full attention for more than 2-3 minutes. An instructional design professional or an e-learning developer knows the finer points of creating an appealing and effective video.

At Ascezen Consulting, we are capable of creating short videos such as the one above that we did for ourselves. Drop a line to know more about the type of videos we can do for you.

By admin Business Writing, Creating Videos, e-learning, Entrepreneurship, Instructional Designing Ascezen Consulting, business writing, Content, learning, short videos for business, training videos, videos 0 Comments

19 Jun

How Can Technical Writing Training Help Aspiring Technical Writers?

A career in Technical Writing in India took off in last two decades and it became a conscious career choice for job-seekers only in the past 10-12 years. Before that, almost all the technical writers in India found their careers in technical writing, accidentally.

Many aspiring technical writers are not sure why do they need training in technical writing. The common perception among the untrained and inexperienced writers is that all they need is a skill to write well to become good writers. Besides the gifted talent for writing, there are a number of things that need to be acquired through learning and practice. Here’s why they must go through an instructor-led technical writing training program.

The Industry Needs Ready Professionals

Most first-generation technical writers in India are self-trained. They never had the privilege of getting trained by expert technical writers or technical writing trainers. The learning was primarily community-based and slow. Today, the industry knows what it wants from technical writers and the writers need to be on their heels as soon as they are hired for a job. A formally trained technical writer is equipped with all the knacks and tricks of the trade.

There Is A Great Deal To Know Even Within The Niche Profession of Technical Writing

As they say, Technical Writing is a Niche. Yes, it is. But there is whole lot of stuff to be learned before one could claim to be a complete technical writer. There is so much variation in language tone, writing style, presentation for each type of documentation. The complexity does not stop here as there are scores of tools to work with. And you must know about where and how your document will be presented to your audience. It is your responsibility to ensure that your work is accessible to your end-users. An accomplished and experienced technical writing trainer would be certainly able to prepare you for those ‘tech’ challenges in technical writing.

Everyone Wants To Grow Faster

Once you get the “technical writer” tag, you want to keep growing at a steady pace. This growth comes easier if you do not spend more time learning at your job. If you know your trade, you are likelier to be more efficient. In the long run, you will get bigger, better challenges that lead to a natural, smooth career progression.

A Certificate Adds Weight

A technical writing certification will make you stand apart from the frivolous job-seekers who are not focused on technical writing profession. Your certificate will begin with making that distinction for you. Not just that, your interview will most likely be focused on what you learned during the technical writing course, giving you more opportunity to talk about readiness for the job.

To Plan Career Growth, Better

Once you are an accomplished technical writer, you will be able to plan the next moves, better. There are a number of avenues that open up for experienced technical writers. You can decide to continue to be a technical writer throughout the career just for the love of writing or you can move into project management. With a technical writing certificate, you are aware of all the options and you can spot the opportunities of becoming a business analyst, domain expert, or a project manager. Be your own master!

Learn What You Can’t

At your job as a technical writer, you will be asked to perform tasks in accordance with your key responsibility areas or project requirements. In that limited space, you might learn whatever you can but there will be a limitation. You may not even know your options of learning and trying out different skills within the ambit of technical writing. During a technical writing training course, you will get a chance to lay your hands on a variety of tasks that require different skills and knowledge of specific tools or techniques. So, you get to learn even what you may not get to do in a typical technical writing job.

Mentoring And Career Guidance From Trainers and Peers

It always helps to have a mentor during those distressing stages of career when you need that expert advice on a career move or a technical solution. The trainers or the faculty members at the training institution often act as life-long coaches and gurus. The batch-mates during the training usually go on to become good peers as you tend to grow along with them through the career. With a set of professionals to help, you would never be short of bright ideas.

The reasons listed above are sufficient to speak in the favor of choosing to get prepared before you dash into a technical writing job. Ascezen Consulting offers certificate courses in Technical Writing, Creative Writing, E-learning, and Business content writing. Get in touch for details.translate english to italian

By admin Technical Writing, Training Creative Writing, e-learning development course, India, learning, Technical Writing, technical writing course, technical writing training india 0 Comments

23 May

How can a Case Study help in Selling?

A case study is a piece of writing that highlights a problem faced by an individual or an organization and elaborates how it got solved. All the business decisions inarguably stem from a problem at hand with the decision being the best feasible solution. A case study defines the entire course of action from identifying a problem to implementing a solution and getting desired results.

Picture showing the names of the parts of a case study: Background, Problem Statement, Alternatives, Solution, and Result.

Anatomy of a Case Study

Case studies demonstrate the problem-solving capability needed to address similar problems for other people as well as organizations. When presented to a potential customer, case studies form an impression that the vendor or the service provider has proven expertise in resolving the particular kind of problem.

Typically, the anatomy of a case study includes sections such as Company Background, Detailed Problem Statement, Possible Alternatives Considered, The Best Solution, and The Results – positively impacting the bottom line.

The best case studies would mention the names of the organizations, products, place and time to make it look real and verifiable. The icing on the cake happens to be a client testimonial that corroborates the claims made in the case study document. It helps a company pitching for assignments prove to its prospects that it has the required experience and expertise to solve their problems.

From the above sections, it can be made out how convincing it can be to use case studies in pitching for sales. No argument or claim can be better than saying it through past work. All this makes case studies a very potent, though silent, weapon to win over your competitors in battle of achieving sales targets. Despite all this, there is a very important aspect to case studies, which has to do with how well they are written.

At Ascezen, we create convincing and compelling case studies to help you boost your sales by strengthening the sales pitches. Our business writing team can do it for you at rates that mean nothing when compared to what they help your organization achieve.

By admin Business Writing, Case Study Business Content, Case Studies, Case Study, case study writing, Company Background, Detailed Problem Statement, Possible Alternatives Considered 0 Comments

01 Feb

Business Content Writing Needs of a Start-up

Business Content Writing Needs of a Start-up company may include a variety ranging from website content to promotional content. Let’s try to create a rough sequence of activities and stages during the early days of any business setup.

An infograph showing the names of content deliverables required by a start-up company- business plan, website content, presentations, brochures, proposals, training content, case studies, and process documents.

Content Needs of a Start-up

Create a Business Plan
It all starts with an idea to create and sell. Identifying the needs of a large customer base or a niche market that was not being served adequately becomes the point where an entrepreneur begins the journey. The first document that needs to be created is a business plan—a document that gives details of the business idea, expected profitability, associated risks and mitigation plans, phase-wise implementation plan, milestones, and the required resources as well as funds. The first objective to create a business plan is to achieve clarity of purpose and goal setting. Next, it can be used to convince prospective sponsors, investors, and other stakeholders. While some entrepreneurs may have desired skill to create a business plan but many of them may want to seek expert advice. Hiring a business consultant with knowledge and expertise in creating business documents may be a good choice.

Create a Website with Good Content Appeal
Today it is unthinkable to start a business without a website, irrespective of your type of business. Any entrepreneurial venture will need to have an impressive website. Apart from the visual appeal, your website should effectively communicate with your prospective partners, vendors, or customers. It should have content that speaks about your services, convince the visitors about your capabilities, and evoke a positive response. Quality content on your website and regular content updates will make it popular in web search, resulting in high search engine rankings for the website. Fresh and original content will help get business leads and this is a vital requirement for a start-up company.

Spread the Word – Promote your Products & Services
As a new entrant, what you would really need is to have your prospective customers know about your products and services through internet advertising, print media, and product or service brochures. You will require convincing business proposals targeting each prospect specifically. You will need to create crisp and appealing presentations to take along in business meetings with future clients.

Train your Staff
You will need professionally skilled and trained staff to conduct business. As a start-up, your budget may not allow hiring many experienced professionals. It will be more feasible to hire fresh talent and train them. Needless to mention that you will need personalized training content and possibly resort to e-learning for saving costs and providing a consistent, standardized training to your staff.

Strengthen your Position
After you have taken off by winning a few deals, you need to gear up for bagging bigger projects, clients, or accounts. You need to build a reputation that breeds trust on your capabilities. You will need to demonstrate that your company follows standard processes by maintaining proper process documentation – particularly for functions like HR and Operations. To prove your capabilities on delivery front, you will need to take about past successes through some convincing success stories in the form of case studies. This will be an ongoing activity as you get more experience and process maturity of your organization increases.

There you go… You need good content all along—whether it is building up, winning business deals, or showcasing your strengths.

To know about the business content writing services provided by Ascezen, please visit the services page or send an email to biz at ascezen dot com.

By admin Business Writing, Content Writing brochures, business plan, Case Studies, e-learning, entrepreneur, HR, original content, presentations, start-up, training content 0 Comments

27 Dec

Error-free Documentation Needs a Multi-pronged Review Strategy

A quintessential element of quality is accuracy or being free of errors. When we talk of content or technical documentation, the errors may be in language, structuring, or the output layout. Reviews play a pivotal role in delivering accurate content and there are many elements in a content output that need to checked, verified or questioned. Delivering error-free documentation needs a multi-pronged review strategy. Broadly, the review strategy must focus on language accuracy, technical accuracy, the visual elements, content layout and structure. Mostly importantly, the reviews should ensure that the deliverables meet client requirements and expectations. For each of those elements, there has to be a unique review instance. Let’s discuss how to employ various review formats.

Peer Reviews: Usually, the first review should be done by the writer, using some review parameters or a personalized, project-specific review checklist. Only when a writer is sure about the accuracy and completeness of the content, should there be any request for peer reviews. As the name suggests, peer reviews are done by peers, colleagues or team members—preferably from content or documentation team. These reviews are helpful in spotting the errors that don’t catch the originator’s attention because the writers read the text as they thought of putting it and not what they finally brought into writing. In other words, they are prone to ignoring the typographical errors or mistakes in translating their thoughts on the document. Another set of eyes make a difference!

SME Reviews: To check the accuracy of facts, it is best to ask the architects, designers or subject matter experts to review the concepts, descriptions, definitions, and procedures in the product documentation. In case of Supply Chain management software, there could be Supply Chain domain experts or product owners/managers who know how would the product work. They would be in a better position to tell about the precise words that explain it correctly.

Editorial Reviews: The most defining category of reviews that essentially deals with quality of language and expression. This review focuses on the organization of content, the flow of information, the language flow, choice of words, writing styles, locale, length of sentences, audience perspective, clients’ guidelines and any other aspect that affects accuracy, completeness and originality of content.

Functional Reviews: This category of reviews deals with the visual elements in the content such as graphical content and the look-and-feel of the output. If there are images used in the content then they should be reviewed for language and technical accuracy, and usability parameters that are important to make it accessible for all. The images should have proper captions and alternative text. If the content output is generated using content-authoring tools such as Adobe Robohelp, Adobe Framemaker, Madcap Flare or Adobe Acrobat, then it is recommended to view the final output. In case of web-based content, it must be viewed on various browsers or platforms for which it has been targeted. The linkages among the topics and with the application should also be checked to verify that the appropriate help pages pop up when the user asks for help.

Client Reviews: Last but the most important factor is what does your client say about the content output. It is absolutely mandatory to solicit client feedback for two reasons. The first one being the necessity of getting feedback on your work—to know if you delivered what you promised. The second reason is to gain the approval on acceptance on your delivery. While it is the best thing to meet the promised quality in the first attempt, it is also important to understand and evaluate the client feedback if it demands rework. Incorporating the feedback is so important that if one fails in doing it, the entire review process becomes futile.

Ideally, every milestone should go through Language, SME, Technical, and Client reviews. However, some milestones may not require all of them. For instance, the content layouts and structuring may not require SME or Technical reviews. With a review strategy that builds in the balanced mix of the above-mentioned types of reviews in the content development or documentation development lifecycle, any content provider can be quite sure of producing error-free documentation, subject to other influencing factors such as documented scope of work, requirement understanding, and support from all the concerned stakeholders.

By admin Content Review, Documentation Review, Peer Review, Reviewing, Technical Writing Review Content, Editorial Reviews, Functional Reviews, Language Review, SME review, Supply Chain 0 Comments

06 Dec

Who Needs a Content Vendor?

It is as early as toying with the idea of a start-up that the wannabe entrepreneurs would need a good hand at content. Be it an impressive pitch to raise venture capital or funding through a bank loan, all entrepreneurs need to sell their ideas that must also be presented beautifully. And this selling must persist to get different potential stakeholders such as business partners, the founding team, and the first customers. An entrepreneur needs to communicate through various mediums such as the corporate website, blog, product or service brochure, online or print ads and anything else that’s thinkable. Most entrepreneurs are ripe with great ideas but not all of them can put them across a wide outreach. Why just entrepreneurs, even established businesses are also among those who might need help with corporate communication.

Let’s go deeper to find out more about who needs a content vendor…

You have an excellent idea and want to create a convincing business plan: You need someone who can organize your thoughts and ideas, and present them in words as well as statistical visuals. A business plan becomes compelling when it has everything thought out and planned. It flows in a sequence and answers questions as they come up. All this can be done by professionals who understand business as well as excel in the art of communication. So, it will help if you hire a company that can trusted enough to keep your well-guarded secrets and help you put in all on paper.

You have a product ready for market and need help with branding and advertising: Your team might believe that they created the best product for a certain market but the word needs to go out as well. You need to inform your prospective customers and distribution networks about the unique features of a great product. Who can help you better than communication specialists who can understand the technology and explain it to the world in a lucid manner? You certainly need a business content writing services provider—a content vendor capable of creating compelling business collaterals such as presentations, demonstrations, and brochures.

You have a product that can’t go without documentation: You were so busy developing a wonderful application or product that you completely overlooked the support documentation angle. Now when the product is almost ready, you find out that it must be supported by some user documentation such as a user manual, product guide or help videos. Assisting the users in installing, deploying and using a product or application is a vital part of customer relationship management.

You need to engage with your customers intelligently: Today, nobody might disagree that it is increasingly becoming crucial to engage in a constant dialogue with one’s customers. It helps you understand their changing needs, shift in choices, issues with one’s products and what’s being talking about the most. Most importantly, you get a chance to tell your loyal and about-to-leave customers about your future plans, product enhancements and new releases. A blog or social media campaign might be the first thing to start from. Again, you would need communication experts who think like your users to interact with them and find out what’s on your customers’ minds.

Your company needs content to support some products but that’s not a round-the-year requirement: Let’s say your organization doesn’t have much of regular content production needs but once or twice a year you need someone to spruce up the corporate website content or update existing product and process documentation. It might not be feasible to hire and retain a content team through the year but hiring a content vendor to provide a periodic fixed-cost service might serve the need.

Your company needs to produce and edit content through the year: There are fair chances that your company would already have a content or technical writing team in place. It is also likely that workload might at times go out-of-proportion if there aren’t a good number of people sitting idle. Maintaining a good bench strength helps handle the extra work but it isn’t a cost-effective or lean strategy. Those aiming for optimum resource utilization might consider having some content vendors shortlisted for seasonal spikes in workload. The cost would be lesser than having an unproductive team with a downward learning curve.

The competitive business scenario would leave no room for a product or service not marketed well. An excellent idea or product must not die a premature death for the want of fair publicity. It must be talked about to get its fair share of limelight. Every product needs a voice to announce its arrival. Once the product or idea takes off, it marks the onset of life-long quest to support the product to sustain in the market. This is where fresh content will always be needed and it is not a bad idea to invest in a content vendor.free translation greek to english

By admin Business Writing, Content Service Provider, Content Vendor, Content Writing brochures, business plan, Case Studies, content writing services provider, customer relationship management, demonstrations, entrepreneur, help videos, presentations, product guide, social media, User Manual, white papers 0 Comments

28 Nov

Top 5 Reasons Why Should You Invest in a Content Vendor?

Top 5 Reasons Why Should You Invest in a Content Vendor?

In the present business scenario, there are quite a few companies who have a content team or technical publications department in place. They are the ones who understand the value of having content creation or documentation expertise in-house. There are other companies who either don’t have the budget or a permanent need to employ a team of writers and obviously some managers to look after them. Most of such companies rely on freelancers or contractors when they have a content requirement such as refurbishing their website or blog, and may be when a product needs documentation just before shipping it out. Many people would agree that there are challenges in working with freelancers. Here are top five reasons why organizations should seriously consider investing in a specialist content vendor or content service provider.

1. Using A Specialist On The Job Is Always Better

It is always safer to have a specialist do the job. Though it seems anyone with good language skills can produce any kind of content but let’s admit that it is just a myth. Even within the range of content, there is whole lot of variety to be dealt with and there are specialists in handling technical content, business content, web content or something for print media.

Besides, there are some search engine (read google) trends to be followed at a given time, differences in writing styles across geographies and industries. An experienced writing professional would be able to add greater value from all the significant perspectives.

2. An Established Content Services Provider Is More Reliable Than A Freelancer

If a content vendor is a registered company then its reliability quotient is much higher than a freelancer sitting in a remote place, a few continents away. While it is possible for a freelancer to vanish and return with a brand-new profile and persona, it is not so easy for a company that has to create a name for itself and grow its business in the long term.

A content vendor would be more likely to have a business continuity plan and adequate resources to deliver in time even in case of materialization of some risks.

3. A Content Vendor Can Give More Variety Than A Freelancer

A content service provider would be able to provide a great deal of variety in content solutions ranging from website content, blogs, brochures, case studies to user manuals, online help and training videos or e-learning solutions. A team of independent contractors or freelancers may be able to produce all of this but it would be a herculean task to coordinate and get consistent results in quality as well as timelines.

4. A Content Vendor Assumes More Accountability And Shares The Risks

Some organizations, owing to their domain and industry segment, might often be under the threat of facing legal consequences due to copyright or plagiarism issues. It is imperative to review their content for originality before it is published or circulated. Service-level agreements are one of the means of ensuring that the authors take some responsibility but a vendor company is far better risk-sharing partner than an individual. Besides, a content vendor may employ better means to check plagiarism such as a peer-review process or using plagiarism detection tools.

5. A Content Vendor Saves Management And Quality Assurance Costs On Content Production

Managing a team of freelancers also has a cost. More than the cost factor, it is the ability to judge the quality, originality and cost of content production that needs a relatively much experienced professional with content or documentation expertise. A freelance writer is self-managed but a team of contractors would need a manager. A content services provider, on the contrary, would be able to provide an expert supervision and project management at a comparable much lower cost than a full-time manager to manage a need-based engagement with freelancers.

By admin Content Writing, e-learning, Instructional Designing, Technical Writing Content Service Provider, Content Service Vendor, Content Writing Services, plagiarism, Technical Writing Services 0 Comments

22 Nov

Documentation Development in Agile Development Models

Documentation Development in Agile Development Models

In the previous post, we discussed about the integration of Documentation Development Life Cycle (DDLC) with the Waterfall Model of Systems Development. Now that the software engineering is evolving to bring in more speed, efficiency, and tendency to provide quicker insights into the final outcomes, there are newer methodologies gaining popularity. Agile Development is one such approach that talks about having increments of working software developed in some defined time periods to give more clarity and garner confidence of developers and customers alike.

With the change in perspective, documentation development needs to change suit too. Let’s see how does the technical and user documentation get affected while progressing in an Agile fashion. To understand the change solicited by the Agile Development process, let us understand what it demands.

There are many Agile Development models such as Scrum, Extreme Programming, Agile Modeling and so on. For this post, I would consider Scrum model to explain Agile Development process.

The essence of Agile Development lies in more emphasis on collaboration, communication, incremental tangible outcomes, and active customer participation. However, it doesn’t completely ignore the importance and role of processes, documentation, and extensive planning. It puts more focus on what needs to be built rather than aggressively tracking how it is being built. Agile Development is all about being receptive to change and adapting quickly. It also puts more responsibility on team members to communicate, collaborate, give ideas, identify risks, propose solutions, set goals, prioritize tasks, and track the status for one’s work products.

To be precise, the Agile Development models split the main project objective or goal into small and smaller increments that would be developed over a number of time frames such as a week to a month, during the estimated project duration. For every defined cycle, also called a Sprint, each member has to identify his work product or software increment that is complete in a way and can be used.The tasks are identified in a very interesting manner by depicting them as “user stories” wherein a user should be able to use the work product to accomplish something.

Communication and collaboration take the center stage. The team meets before the start of every sprint to plan for it and then once again after they finish the sprint—to review the progress, challenges, risks, identify the lessons learned and the best practices for future. But that’s not all they have for communication and collaboration. They meet on a daily basis in a very short meeting that gives a chance to share about the progress, bottlenecks, and to plan when and where they can get help.

Transparency is the main keyword. All Agile Developments models ensure that all the team members know what the other person is doing. It helps in proper coordination and better planning.

So, the take away for the documentation engineers is:

The technical writers can see the bigger picture right through the beginning as they are included in the sprint planning meetings.

The technical writers get to interact with all team members or any specific member, who could help with the required information. This eases the requirement understanding and requirement gathering challenges.

At every change initiation, they get a chance to discuss the impact on documentation and plan for it in time.

The most important aspect for technical writers is time management and planning the activities that aren’t dependent on work product in any sprint. Some examples of such activities could be preparing templates or stylesheets, and so on. They have to ensure that they schedule such activities either in early sprints where there is more of analysis and design underway or whenever they finish their work product sooner in a sprint.

As for the Documentation Development Life Cycle (DDLC), it shrinks to fit in every single sprint and follows an iterative and incremental approach.

Overall, working in an Agile Development model gives more comfort, support, and visibility to the technical writers and they don’t seem to work out of an island.

By admin Documentation Development Life Cycle, Documentation Process, Documentation Project Management, Project Management, Technical Writing Agile Development, Agile Modeling, DDLC, Documentation Development Life Cycle, Extreme Programming, Scrum, Technical Writing, Technical Writing Process, Waterfall Model 0 Comments

14 Nov

Mapping Documentation Development Life Cycle (DDLC) with SDLC

Software Development Life Cycle is a sequence of phases or logical stages in the course of development of an idea into a software application or a product. It is commonly abbreviated as SDLC. A well-known traditional approach to SDLC is known as Waterfall Model. The Waterfall Model lists the stages in the life cycle as:

Communication (Project Initiation, Requirements Gathering)
Planning (Estimating, Scheduling, Tracking)
Modeling (Analysis, Design)
Construction (Code, Test)
Deployment (Delivery, Support)

For any software application to be developed, the development team isn’t just constituted of software engineers, analysts, and architects. It also requires people to test and document the processes as well as the product. The group that works on creating and maintaining documentation is known as Documentation or Technical Publications group and it is composed of Technical Writers—people who can create Technical and User Documentation.

The Technical Writers also follow a development cycle for creating documentation, which is known as Documentation Development Life Cycle. The Documentation Development Life Cycle (DDLC) maps with the SDLC such that the entire product team works in close coordination to complete the development, adhering to a common project schedule. Modeled on SDLC, the DDLC has somewhat similar stages as that of SDLC. However, the duration of stages varies according to the difference in availability schedule of inputs for various stages. Let us begin with taking a look at the stages in the DDLC.

The DDLC stages, as understood by Technical Writing team at Ascezen, include the following:

Understand Requirements
Design
Develop
Review
Finalize
Publish

The activities to be performed during each of the stages are listed below:

Understand Requirements
- Understand the Product or Application to be developed
- Gain an understanding of the Domain or Subject Matter
- Understand Client Requirements for Documentation
- Study Legacy Documentation and Writing Style Guides used by the Client
- Provide Content Consulting or Evangelism
- Propose Documentation Deliverables and Tools to be used
- Prepare Effort Estimate
- Propose Team Size and Composition
Design
- Prepare Templates and Stylesheets
- Prepare an Outline or the Table of Contents for documents to be created
- Create Content Strategy for Single-sourcing or writing for multiple user roles
- Create a Documentation Project Schedule
Develop
- Gather Information: Read Design Specifications ,Interview Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
- Create Content Drafts
- Create and Insert Graphics
- Format the Content
- Generate Output(s)
Review
- Language Review
- SME or Technical Review
- Client POC’s Review
Finalize
- Incorporate agreed changes after each review
- Finalize the Content
Publish
- Integrate the Documentation with the Product or Application
- Send for final publishing or distribution

Mapping Documentation Development Life Cycle with SDLC

Mapping the Documentation Development Life Cycle (DDLC) with the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) isn’t as straightforward as it seems. Some of the reasons are:

Documentation starts quite late in the SDLC: Most often, the last few to get on board a project are the documentation people. Even if they aren’t, the requirement understanding stage for technical writers is extended till the time they get to read a formal requirement specification document or see a prototype. However, it doesn’t happen like that always as sometimes technical writers get to document the design specifications too.
Documentation can’t finish as soon as the Software Development: It is only when the entire software application is developed that the documentation can be given its final shape. Even after all the content in created, there are activities such as language and SME reviews, creating index entries, generating and testing final outputs. All this may take some time until we can announce the completion.
Trivial Changes in the Application may call for Critical Documentation Updates: Small changes such as change in UI resulting in relocation of a button or field, modification in input type on a form, reorganization or reordering on menu may account for an unexpected volume of change across the documentation. It might also require recapturing and replacing numerous screenshots.

With the above factors, the DDLC may not have all its stages completely go hand-in-hand with the SDLC stages. The Requirement Understanding stage of DDLC goes on till the commencement of Construction or Development phase of SDLC. Typically, there would be a lag in Documentation Finish dates and the DDLC would extend the duration of SDLC, too.

By admin Documentation Development Life Cycle, Documentation Process, Technical Writing DDLC, Documentation Development Life Cycle, documentation project schedule, effort estimation, Information Gathering, Review, Reviewing Documents, SDLC, SME, software development life cycle, Technical Writers, Technical Writing, The Waterfall Model, Understand Requirements 0 Comments

05 Nov

The Potential of Minimalism in Content and Website Design

If you want to develop a mobile version of any website, it will be a good idea to go with a minimalist approach. Quite a few critics cringe at the notion of minimalist design, presuming it will make the overall design and layout boring. The concept is also misinterpreted as black text on a white background devoid of any effects or graphics. However, all these assumptions are very far from the reality. It must be noted that minimalism does not involve dull or uninteresting techniques or features. The main objective of minimalism is to present different elements and features in their primary role, without the need to involve unnecessary frills and distractions. In reality, several usability experts have a view that minimalism will enhance the impact and effectiveness of website designs.

Some Advantages of Minimalism

Most usability experts believe that minimalism will definitely rule the roost in the future. The concept offers several interesting and unique ways to simplify uncomplicated website designs without much effort. Minimalism will enable users to use their smartphones and internet to access most of the web applications without any technical glitches emanating from compatibility issues.
The main functionality of minimalism is to restrict the intended message to its bottom line so as to provide clarity of ideas and expressions. Users may begin to complain as little as possible after being exposed to the powerful results of minimalism.
The concept will certainly find favor with mobile web users. It will enable users to download the content faster.
Users will be able to access the content in different layouts on different platforms with superior quality and increased smoothness.
Smartphone users browse internet on their phones quite frequently and they might easily get irritated if they have to needlessly navigate to many web pages or unrelated information before they get what they are looking for. A minimalist website design can easily eliminate inappropriate clutter of information or webpages.
Minimalism helps in brand building too. It is very important for a brand to stay consistent in order to be remembered for being neat in expressions. By removing clutter that is considered to be perplexing, a brand can definitely stand out in the crowd.

Mobile manufacturing companies can get benefited with the assistance from usability professionals to adopt minimalism in design. Today, mobile devices and components come with smaller bandwidth, slower data internet connectivity and smaller screens. All these technical restrictions can be effortlessly overcome by a unique minimalist design. The technology will unquestionably enhance mobile website designs and other technicalities in the future.

Minimalism in Writing

“The more you say, the less people remember. The fewer the words, the greater the profit.”
– Francois Fenelon

Most popular writers, authors, and poets have believed that brevity is very important to engage one’s audience. There, all we want to say must be said in brief. Let’s find out how some of us tend to get lengthier. Some writers create content using 2^nd person singular tone. It is considered very friendly. Certainly, it results in passive voice, which tends to detach the reader from the action because the sentences become lengthy and boring. This type of writing might confuse the readers as well. Therefore, it is better to create understandable active voice constructions to appeal the readers’ minds.

The current norm is minimalist writing. This type of writing is considered to be straightforward without being lengthy and uninteresting. The overall idea is to include appropriate information needed for the readers – no more, no less. The writer should create the content in a comprehensible, direct active voice.

Minimalism Unchained

Some people have an opinion that minimalist writing includes very few words or sentences. But in reality, minimalist writing is not easy. You need to explain the entire information or concept involving very words or phrases. The idea is to use less words and sentences but they must have a bigger impact on the mind of the readers. You need to question any phrase or word that you are about to use to know whether it is essential to communicate your intended message. You might need to think, review and rewrite to be sure of being brief and complete in communicating.

Some Tips for Minimalist Writing

Keep sentences brief and straightforward.
Infuse coherence in successive sentences to keep the flow.
Consolidate the cluster of short sentences in meaningful paragraphs.
Do not discuss several topics in a single paragraph to avoid confusing the reader.
Ensure that paragraph length is appropriate.
Always prefer active voice.
Use images or pictures to convey a powerful message instead of explaining it endlessly.

translate from french to english

By admin Content Writing, Creative Writing, Minimalism, Technical Communication, Technical Writing Content Writing, Francois Fenelon, Minimalism, Technical Communication, Technical Writing, Technical Writing skills, Writing 0 Comments

28 Oct

Preventing and Detecting Plagiarism

Today, the world thrives on information whether it is in the form of print or anything shared using electronic media. Content is used to sell products and services while at times, it is the content that is sold for consumption. One of the biggest problems miring the content industry today is plagiarism. Some people tend to copy and paste the desired content from the internet. This is certainly not welcome for a variety of reasons. We need to create fresh and original content for learning as well as growth.

Plagiarism: Why does it hurt?

Everyone loves appreciation! It hurts when it is wrongfully denied.

Some people tend to take undue credit for someone’s hard work, thus ruining the entire notion of creativity and ownership. There are some basic rules and guidelines for content creation that must be strictly followed to prevent plagiarism.

Plan

It is very essential to plan your requirements and know your objectives well before starting to create content. You need to create an outline right at the beginning. This useful technique can go a long way in avoiding plagiarism, which mainly stems from lack of ideas. You need to assess what information is most essential. Incorporating a detailed work plan will allow you to have a clear understanding of the scope of your work. Do not begin your writing assignment in haste. Planning is extremely essential and if you start writing an assignment without a detailed preparation, you will certainly lose your way and might end up in the trap of plagiarism.

Research the Subject

It is very important to research the subject of your writing assignment. You can easily include important details, facts and figures in your intended content if you research the web or other sources of information adequately. You will be able to create informative, unique and original content if you understand the concepts or information that you would cover in your work assignment. On the other hand, it is very important to develop and adopt a personal style of writing in order to evade plagiarism.

Attributions

It is imperative that we give proper attributions and citations if we quote from a primary source of information such as a research, journal, or a website. This process should begin with asking permission from the original publisher or copyright holder to reuse and republish the data in a different form. We must give away the credit to the owners or originators of the information reused.

Utilize Different Plagiarism Detectors

There are useful online plagiarism detection tools such as copyscape, writecheck and others that can be of great help to writers checking plagiarism. These online plagiarism detectors have the ability to detect traces of duplicate content in any type of work quite easily. If you have unknowingly included the content of another writer, you can effortlessly detect the errors with the help from effective online plagiarism detectors. There are both paid and free plagiarism detection software available in the market. Generally, people go with free plagiarism software available on the internet but it is preferable to buy a full and licensed version, which is more reliable.

Get Assistance from Expert Writers

It is a known fact that experienced and accomplished writers have the required skills and expertise to write plagiarism-free content. They can easily assist you in getting absolutely plagiarism-free content according to your needs. If you do not have sufficient time to write your assignment, then seeking professional help from an experienced ghost writer is the best possible alternative. This technique will ensure proper completion of your assignment within the stipulated deadline without any errors and plagiarism.

Plagiarism is a common occurrence across the world. People tend to engage in this malpractice in order to save their time, effort and money. It is very rampant in academic institutions all over the world, therefore, quite a few professors and teachers make it almost mandatory for all the students to check their work for plagiarism before submission.

If you are looking for a content provider that gives you original and plagiarism-free content, get in touch with Ascezen Consulting.

By admin Content Writing, Plagiarism checking plagiarism, original content, plagiarism, plagiarism checker, plagiarism detection software 0 Comments

18 Oct

How to Create Learning Objectives

To create SMART learning objectives, you must consider the following rules:

Learning objectives come in the form of statements and contain a Verb (an action) and an object (usually a noun) in each statement.

The verb is a reference to the actions associated with the anticipated cognitive process.
The object (usually a noun) depicts the behavior, attitude, or knowledge expected to be acquired by and exhibited from the learner after the learning session.

The steps for creating effective learning objectives are as follows:

Create a Stem: Learning objectives must be made with a stem that shows the end result of the program. It gives a clear picture of the outcome of the learning process. You can use any of the examples while creating a stem.

After the workshop, seminar, training session or a class the learner will be able to…
After finishing this activity, the learner will have…
After the completion of this part of study or training, the student or learner will…
On the conclusion of the unit/course/session/study, the learner or a student will…

For example: The learner will be able to speak with confidence on any topic.
OR
The learner will list the steps involved in the process of creating a business report.

Add a Verb: After creating a stem you need to add a verb. It will show the observable action, which learner should be able to do. The following table shows the various verbs associated with the action or outcome intended and expected from the learner.

If you want the learner to exhibit knowledge after going through the instructions and learning, use the following verbs in the learning objectives you devise.

To gauge the understanding of the concepts, you can test the ability or knowledge of learners by using the following verbs in learning:

To know the capability of the learner to apply the knowledge imparted under the learning program, you can use the following verbs in your learning objectives.

You can also check the ability of the learners to analyze or evaluate by using the following verbs.

You can also test the ability of the learner to synthesize or to create by using any of the following verbs.

As an instructor, guide or a teacher you would want to know whether the learners or students are able to evaluate and assess the concepts or ideas. For this, you can use the following verbs in your learning objectives.

In the process of planning the learning objectives, you can follow some of the following points for better results.

Commence with an action which is observable and measurable.
Do not use words that are ambiguous or open to different readings.
When required, you must state the criterion or expected standard of performance.
Try to keep in mind the intellect of the learners at the time of starting. Then you can devise the learning objectives which will take them to the next level.
Ensure to include all the major concepts or points when you are creating the learning objectives.

In a nutshell, to achieve the desired result from a training or e-learning course, you need to have the objectives clearly defined. Creation of learning objectives, hence, serves the purpose for all its participants and makes the learning process more enriching, inspiring, and successful.

Also Read: Learning Objectives: Commencing with End in Mind

By admin Instructional Designing, Training Objectives Create learning objectives, Creating learning objectives, learning objectives, SMART 0 Comments

11 Oct

Learning Objectives: Commencing with End in Mind

Learning ought to be a continuous process to stay up with the latest trends. It is not only restricted to the academic lot but includes all who wish to grow. Learning can be in the form of classroom learning, e-learning, by way of actually doing it. No matter what method of learning it is, it will always come with an objective that must be achieved at the end of it. A learning objective is a statement of expected results from a learning session or training module. It can take the form of a list enumerating what the learner is expected to achieve or accomplish after undergoing the learning module.

Learning objectives must be written clearly in the form of learning outcomes. Moreover, these objectives must be measurable or quantifiable. They must aim to elicit the desired behavior from the learner and also help the instructor to make sure that learning took place as planned. No organization would spend money on a learning program that fails to achieve the learning objectives and serves no purpose. Planning of learning objectives can help the organization reap various benefits, as discussed below.

Advantages of Learning Objectives

Learning objectives help in focusing on focus learning areas for better performance.
These objectives aid the course developers and trainers in course planning and organizing a course into logical modules.
Learning objectives help the instructors to customize the learning material as per the requirement.
They allow establishing a relation between the content and the assessments, according to the learning theories.
They make learners aware about the course they will go through and what is expected from them upon its completion.
They eventually serve as a basis for appraising the performance of not only the learner but also of the instructor or the effectiveness of the learning program.

The above-mentioned advantages clearly emphasize on the need of having the learning objectives in place, with utmost attention and prudence. Therefore, while planning, it must be ensured that the objectives qualify on SMART parameters. SMART is an acronym that stands for:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Time Bound

Setting SMART learning objectives will make the training or learning modules more effective, practical, and relevant. It is noteworthy that straying away from the clearly-written learning objectives may render your learning efforts a futile exercise.

Learning Theories

There are various theories used for creation of effective learning objectives. Some of commonly known theories include the Bloom’s Taxonomy, Simpson’s Taxonomy of the Psychomotor Domain and Harrow’s Taxonomy of Psychomotor Domain. Among these, Bloom’s Taxonomy is widely used to create effective learning objectives. Developed by Benjamin S. Bloom, the theory covers three domains which are to be followed during the learning program. The categories covered are as follows:

Cognitive Domain (intellectual competence i.e. knowledge)
Affective Domain (behaviour, feelings, attitude)
Psychomotor Domain (physical or manual set of skills)

The domains are explained as:

Cognitive Domain: Under cognitive category, Bloom has divided it into six stages covering lowest to highest form of cognitive learning. The six levels covered under it are as follows.
- Knowledge: It involves understanding, memorizing, or simply recalling information shared by the facilitators or instructors.
- Comprehension: This stage is characterized by profound understanding of the concepts, ideas or information imparted by the trainer, instructor, or a facilitator. The learner—after proper grasp of the concepts—is able to come up with the theories in his own words.
- Application: In this level, the learner is able to put his knowledge to practical use. It involves practical application of the knowledge
- Analysis: This level lands the learner into analysis mode where he breaks down the information and concepts learnt in the previous stages. He is able to analyze and draw logical conclusions.
- Synthesis: In this phase, on the basis of the learning process, the learner is able to combine the pieces of knowledge, ideas, and information in a coherent manner. He is equipped to come up with his own set of innovations and creative ideas on various topics.Evaluation: At this stage, both the learners and instructors can easily evaluate and appraise the performance. Critical feedback is an important component in the entire process for improving the end result.
Affective Domain: It is a vital factor in the theory of Bloom’s Taxonomy. This domain relates to the emotional well-being of the learner. It takes into account the feelings, emotions and attitudes of the learners. It aims to boost confidence and self-esteem of the learner.
Psychomotor Domain: This category includes physical well-being of the learner to ensure active participation. It focuses on the use of one’s own hands or equipment to find the answers or solutions.

Of all the above mentioned domains, it is primarily the cognitive domain that is considered while formulating learning objectives. You can use Bloom’s Taxonomy to make the learning process more comprehensive and the result of it more wholesome.

Also Read: How to Create Learning Objectives

By admin e-learning, Instructional Designing, Training, Training Objectives, Training Preparation Affective Domain, bloom's taxonomy, Cognitive Domain, learning objectives, Learning Theories, Psychomotor Domain 0 Comments

28 Jun

Editing versus Writing

All editors are writers but all writers aren’t editors.

I am quite sure most editors will agree with what I said above. Editing is different from writing and it is much more than proof-reading or reviewing. Those who don’t agree with that opinion, may be actually editing the content under the garb of reviewing and it’s time they start calling themselves Editors. With time, experience and bigger responsibilities, writers are poised to assume the role of an editor. It begins with prolonged exposure to a particular genre of writing, subject matter and the writing style followed. Obviously, when you know your content’s context in and out, you become an authority and can visualize the result of the smallest variations in tone and verbiage. With that, comes the attitude required to become an editor. You start looking at “drafts” and start making “edits” to make the copies read better and explain everything precisely and correctly. You begin to identify and remove the excesses. You look at documents from readers’ perspectives. You are the biggest critic.

Let’s try to answer this – How do you plan your editing?
I think you have to be pretty sure about the expected outcome. You try and match the content drafts with your visualization, make edits, rephrase, paraphrase, reorganize to get an edited version. An editor essentially intends to ensure the following:

Correctness of information
Accuracy of language
Logical flow of information
Ability to grab and sustain readers’ attention
Conciseness of content
Adherence to style guidelines

A point of caution for wannabe editors is that you should respect a writer’s style of writing and expression if it doesn’t come in the way of delivering the right quality. All of us know that we can say one thing in so many ways. However, some editors may want to stick only to their style of writing. This can hamper creativity and leave the writers with little motivation to do something new.

On the other hand, writers need to study the edits, make notes, ask questions, and prepare a personal review checklist. Using the checklist would help reduce the number of editorial changes that writers see in their future drafts.

Editing is also Mentoring
Editing is at best a feedback mechanism for writers. It tells them how to put it better and make it pleasure-to-read. When editors explain their edits either by entering descriptive comments within documents or explaining verbally while being respectful, they are bound to influence the writers positively and they are likelier to see rewarding results soon.translation english to french

By admin Business Writing, Content Writing, Creative Writing, Documentation Process, Technical Communication, Technical Writing Editing, Proof-reading, Proofing, Reviewing Documents, Technical Writing, Writing 0 Comments

10 Jun

Who can become a Technical Writer?

An important question for aspiring Technical Writers – What does it take to make a good Technical Writer? The available answers could resemble a job description saying: Mastery in English Language is absolutely mandatory, Expertise in word processing and documentation tools is required, Exposure to HTML, XML and DITA is preferred and so on.

Let us find out who can become a technical writer, in a simpler manner…

The job of technical writer involves donning many roles and therefore it obviously requires a mixed bag of skills. Besides being good at written English, a technical writer has to be a conversationalist, a technology and innovation enthusiast, people-oriented and an end-user advocate.

As a conversationalist, it becomes easier for a technical writer to strike casual conversations with product designers and developers, which is the easiest way to understand the needs that must be catered by the product. On the other side, if the technical writer gets to interact with the customers or end users, the conversation skills might be handy in capturing their expectations. At times, the user documentation starts when the product or application development is mid-way where some screens are ready, some aren’t, while a number of them need to be modified according to change requests. In such scenarios, it is important to communicate with developers, testers, and architects to understand the flow of application and the functionality for various pages.

Being a technology enthusiast helps the technical writers by making them inclined to take interest in the technological advancements, evolution of products driven by the demands of future, and understanding the business logic of seemingly complex products. It pays to be able to understand the business logic, information flow or sequences depicted in flowcharts, data flow diagrams or UML diagrams.

Working in collaboration with people from different backgrounds, functions and with varying skillsets, makes humanity as the most common team bonding factor. A technical writer may do well to reason out with most people, understand and respect their constraints, be assertive yet wear a calm and cheerful demeanor. The writer must be seen as a team player and people- oriented.

Last but the most significant role is that of a user advocate. Whenever we see a change in layout of a portal or an e-commerce website, a lot of it is driven by user behavior or consumer feedback. As end-user advocates, technical writers empathize with the end-users and look at the products from the users’ perspectives. It helps them visualize the user scenarios, the expectations and of course, they might bump into some exceptions. All of this can go back towards product enhancement and continuous improvement initiatives. So, it reaches a point where Technical Writers not only create and develop product documentation but they also act as product evangelists.

If you have the above mentioned traits, you surely qualify for a technical writer job. You can either get in touch to get associated with Ascezen Consulting Pvt. Ltd. as a Technical Writer/Information Developer/Content Writer or get enrolled for a training program that helps to acquire the required skillset.youtube language translator

By admin Technical Communication, Technical Writing HTML, Technical Writer, Technical Writer skills, Technical Writer Skillset, Technical Writing skills, UML, XML 0 Comments

20 May

Interviewing Subject Matter Experts

Subject Matter Experts or SME’s, as they are commonly known, are people who have advance knowledge in their area of work. They might have gained expertise while working in a specific industry or a job function requiring the mandatory knowledge of a subject. A common example could be a person with an extensive experience in Retail industry who can contribute as an SME for supply chain software development company. Another one could be that of a chartered accountant in an MNC who can help a team developing finance & accounting software for similar companies.

The role of SME’s in software development is to provide relevant knowledge and guidance on the subject matter. They can tell about the actual practices and the deviations from theoretical principles. They are the ones who know about the functional challenges and exceptions. They know how a particular industry is evolving and the likely shift in customer needs in future. SME’s are trusted for their insights and the information they share becomes the basis of software design and features.

Today, most software companies employ SME’s for various verticals such as healthcare industry seeks practising physicians and surgeons, ERP or supply chain requires highly experienced professionals from the industry or those with a doctorate in a relevant field and the translation companies keep looking for experts in some widely spoken languages across the world.

SME’s are consulted the most during the requirement understanding and design stages of the software development lifecycle. A number of people talk to them for a variety of reasons. Software architects or designers talk about how to design the software, to establish the process flows in various business processes. Testing professionals consult them for creating test cases, checks and validations. Technical Writers or Product Documentation engineers interview them to understand the domain and working of the processes so that they can explain them better. Technical Writers or Information Developers need to interact with the SMEs in the Information Gathering phase of the Documentation Development Lifecycle (DDLC).

We all know that conducting an interview is a social activity. But, it has its own challenges when the interview is a technical one and has far-reaching consequences. Any misunderstanding or misconception can lead to a potential flaw in the final software product. As an interviewer, one must surely take interest in the person being interviewed. However, it is very important to ask the right questions, listen, show interest, capture the right information, and validate the understanding before taking it forward.

There may be a situation when there is a panel of SMEs available. We must understand that every participant is capable of making a unique contribution and inputs should be obtained from all the SMEs in such a way that the information gathered isn’t conflicting. In case of any conflicts, follow-up meetings should be organized with carefully designed questions to resolve them. Asking for detailed explanations with suitable examples can help the interviewers gain the clarity and document the information flawlessly.

One of the best practices for the interviewers is to be prepared with a checklist made on the kind of questions to be asked. Another thumb rule to be followed is to record the audio or video of the conversation. Finally, there should be a comfortable exchange between the interviewer and the SME’s. As a respected expert on a particular subject, the SME should be given proper time to talk and ensure that the interviewers or writers absorb their knowledge by listening attentively.

By admin Technical Communication ERP, Information Gathering, Interviewing Subject Matter Experts, MNC, SME, Technical Communication, Technical Writers 0 Comments

18 May

What is Instructional Designing?

Instructional Designing is an art of creating sets of instructions that make it easier to upgrade knowledge and skills in any area of study or work discipline. Any course of study or a training module needs a systematic approach in its development, which is governed by some principles of instructional design. The course developers need to have the objectives and expected end results clearly documented in a well-written document. Not just that, they need to plan what needs to be done to achieve the objectives, identify the milestone deliverable visualize about the building blocks after understanding the requirements and last but not the least, ensure a meticulous adherence and implementation of the planning.

The most relevant application of instructional designing can be seen in imparting education. There have been continuous advancements in the ever-evolving education systems around the world. The focus is shifting to methods of experiential learning or learning-by-doing from the traditional lecture based teaching or rote learning. This evolution started with the revelation about the many forms human learning such as visual, auditory and kinesthetic (through experience).

Another radical change that has affected the teaching or learning methodologies is the advent of computers and Internet and, leading to options of distance learning. The idea of learning from a remote location opens up many challenges such non-overlapping availability of learners and instructors, communication barriers due to physical absence, delay in responses or feedback and so on. All this points to need of course material that engages more, reinforces the learning, asks questions and gives instant feedback for assessment. Getting all this together couldn’t have been made possible without a well-thought method to weave the courseware with seamless sections and logical breaks. Enter the world of instructional design where learning happens with an instructor who talks less, who may be present only virtually and in some cases, not even required.

There are different models of instructional designing. Most of them generally comprise of five phases. The first phase is analysis, where the designers study the requirements or expectations from a learning module or product. Next comes the design phase which deals with translating the spoken or written requirements into a developer’s language with minute details of how the product will come into being. The development phase starts when the design is ready, followed by implementation and evaluation phases. The entire learning development cycle is executed by a team of instructional designers, graphic artists and software programmers, in a streamlined manner, using defined processes.

By admin Instructional Designing auditory, instructional design, Instructional Designer, Instructional Designing, kinesthetic, learning, Learning Styles 0 Comments

18 Apr

Creating an Effective Presentation

Presentations make a powerful medium to share information or sell products and services. Have you ever wondered what makes a PowerPoint presentation effective? Most of us are unsure when asked to make one. What makes a PowerPoint presentation become effective? Is it about the appealing visuals or catchy phrases? Or has it got to do with jazzy animations? Naturally, we end up asking experts for their inputs to reach some conclusions. Honestly, there isn’t a single thumb rule to achieve that but there surely are a few best practices widely acknowledged and accepted. There are certain do’s and don’ts to be followed while making PowerPoint presentations. Some tips to create an effective presentation are as below:

Get hold of the viewer’s attention

This is one of the most important aspects of a presentation. At the beginning of a presentation, one has to attract the attention of their audience. Grabbing their attention does not mean to overcrowd your slides but instead make them look effective. If your presentation is not able to retain the audience’s interest, all your hard work may go waste.

Keep it simple and clear

A good presentation is easy to follow. One must always keep in mind that the content should flow smoothly without confusing the audience. There shouldn’t be conflicting ideas or contradictory statements within a single presentation. The content should use simple, clear words to reach the audience.

Do not overcrowd the slides

Every slide should cover a uniform number of points, for example, limit the number to 5 or 6 points for each slide. Considering the font used, we must keep in mind how many points can be accommodated on each slide to avoid the clutter on the slides. Keep the points short and brief. To make your presentation effective, always filter unnecessary information.

Maintain the word limit

Effective presentations generally deal with the right words, at the right place, in the right tone. We must always take care of the number of words used in each point or sentence. Always try to convey the message effectively in the least number of words possible.

Be careful with images and animations

To make your PowerPoint presentations appear catchy and appealing, always try to use images related with the topics covered. The use of animations should be judicious such that it shouldn’t distract the audience.

Choose right fonts, sizes and colors

The latest versions of Microsoft Office offer a variety of options when it comes to choosing the fonts. An effective presentation should contain font sizes which are legible for a large audience. Avoid using light font colors as it might not be clearly visible to viewers at a distance. Instead, the use of contrasting colors is recommended. Fonts and their sizes should be chosen keeping in mind that they do not appear blurred or pose any difficulty to the audience.

Maintain consistency and flow

It is vital to ensure consistency within and across all the slides to create an efficient presentation. For example, a presentation should have carefully designed slides to mark the beginning, main content and a logical end.

By admin Business Writing, Content Writing, Technical Writing Business Content, effective presentation, Microsoft Office, Microsoft PowerPoint, presentation 0 Comments

21 Mar

What is Technical Writing?

Technical writing is a form of writing that is used in fields such as computer software and hardware, engineering, medical science, finance, consumer electronics and many more.

Technical writing is a branch of communication that provides instructions on how to do something regardless of what the task is, for example, how to operate computer applications, medical procedures or mechanical equipment. The assistance is generally provided through web pages, diagrams, videos, help files, Microsoft Word or text documents. Technical writing involves the creation of support or help documents that can be clearly understood by readers.

Technical writing is performed by writers, who are inclined towards learning new technology and then simplifying it for other people. The technical writers usually begin such work by learning the purpose of the document that they will create, gathering information from existing documentation and from subject-matter experts. Technical writers do not need to be subject matter experts but it surely helps if they become one while working on a domain or suite of products for a long period. A good technical writer needs strong language and communication skills and must understand how to communicate with technology.

Technical writing is generally perceived to be synonymous with online help and user manuals though it is not limited to just that much. It also includes documents product troubleshooting guides, release notes, installation guides, marketing documentation, tutorials, e-learning modules, web content, legal disclaimers, business proposals, and white papers.

The objective of technical writing is to clearly convey the required information to audience in a way that the topic can be understood correctly. Technical writing is a way of analyzing, generating and managing information about various products and technical procedures that need to be explained. For big technical writing projects, a technical writer has to work with user interface designers, software programmers, testers, business analysts, software architects, domain experts, managers, customers, and above all—the end users. But for smaller assignments or in smaller organizations, a technical writer is expected to do the tasks largely by himself. First and foremost thing for a technical writer is to recognize the target audience. Technical writers who know the target audience can advise and execute solutions to the problems that no one else can recognize.

Technical writers must possess the aptitude to comprehend correctly and then be able to clarify it in the best possible manner. A technical writer must have good technical knowledge and good hold over the technical lingo, capability to write in a simple and concise manner with excellent research skills, expertise in various tools such as Microsoft Word, Adobe Robohelp or Framemaker.

Technical writing can be a very useful form of writing and communication for projects, lab reports, standard operating procedures (SOPs), instructions, proposals, and many other forms of professional writing.

For those seeking a career in technical writing, it may prove beneficial to pursue a formal training in technical writing to develop the skills and gain confidence. It can help engineers improve their skills and be able to communicate with individuals, in a better manner, to explain what they have to do, for example, a lot of the work that electrical engineers do is largely based upon technical documents, such as designing audio equipment, which uses many different parts, this could help improve both the ability to understand and write the documents.russian english dictionary

By admin Technical Writing Adobe Robohelp, Microsoft Word, Technical Writer, Technical Writer Skillset, Technical Writing, Technical Writing Training, What is Technical Writing, white papers 0 Comments

09 Oct

Power of Textual Content

Content can be audio, visual, textual or a mix of all of them. The idea is to always reach the audience and make the best appeal. It all depends on the type of content or information that needs to be communicated and the target audience.

Talking in India’s context, print media was the biggest medium to reach the maximum number of educated people till the advent of Radio. The introduction of Radio in India could well be called the beginning of a revolution. It became an important medium for not just giving out news, but also spreading awareness about the plans implemented for country’s growth and development, and turning them successful at the mass level.
Then came Television—the advanced medium that took the country by storm. It reaffirmed the age-old beliefs in the power of visuals. People could see their leaders in action, they could see places they would have never dreamt of visiting, and the creativity that they could never imagine.
All the above examples easily the demonstrate the power of content that increases when it becomes multi-dimensional, from text to speech, auditory to visual, and still picture to moving videos. But the fact remains that at the crux of all content lies the Text – the written word. The written word—whether on paper or a screen—will never wither.

By admin Content Writing auditory, India 0 Comments

27 May

Content is Important

Content is the soul of every communication transaction. It isn’t just about communication these days. The world has moved on to effective communication. Effective communication is about conveying the right information to the target audience in the most lucid and appealing way. The essence of good content lies in the way it is encoded and presented, keeping the target audience in mind. To understand the audience is just the first step and then starts the journey of communication, leading to a never-ending fruitful relationship.

In this dynamic world, all transactions have to be swift and effective. These transactions, most primarily, include sharing information, assisting users, and transmitting new ideas and concepts. So, eventually it means communicating with a purpose, a goal, or a definite motive. The world knows the communication genres that are employed today as Technical Writing, Content Writing, and Instructional Designing, e-Learning and so on. Nevertheless, the underlying principle remains to know the user and communicate to convey the message.

By admin Content Writing Content, Content Writing, Instructional Designing, Technical Writing 2 Comments

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Challenges in Education

How Custom Software Solutions for Education Sector Can Help

Ascezen Consulting’s Expertise

How does the right colour scheme on a website help with conversions?

Know your audience

What you show is what you sell

Using plain, solid colours

Learn from your competitors

Always test your colour combinations

Call-to-action buttons shouldn’t be left out

Does your website enjoy search engine visibility?

Do you want to be seen as an authority in the industry you operate in?

Is your website an idle website?

Do you want to generate leads with your content?

What is your brand’s positioning?

Technical Writing Training in Lucknow

Genres of Content

Content writing training – Processes

Content Writing Training – Tools

A broad outline of our content writing training course is as follows:

How does technical writing training help boost your career in technical writing in India?

Be counted among the Top-notch Content Writers in India

Demand for Content Writers in India

Need for Content Writing Training

What’s an idle website?

• Creates a Lasting Impression

• Communication

• Accessibility

• Competitive Disadvantage

Website – A crucial aspect of Online Identity

How Search Engines Work

Your Content Marketing Strategy must aim to:

Blogs

Videos

Social Media

Infographics

Images

Brochures & White Papers

Apps

Why is having a website important?

Essential Elements in a Website

Why do you need Content Marketing?

Depending upon content strategy, here are a few channels for content marketing:

Blog posts

Emails

Videos

Social media posts

Infographics

Assessments

Images

Apps

Podcasts

Content marketing can help your organization in a number of ways. Here are a few reasons why you should focus on it:

To Improve your search engine result rankings

To grow your web traffic

For better lead generation and conversion rates

To ensure users give your website more time

To increase brand awareness

For building a strong relationship with customers

On-page SEO vs. Off-page SEO: What do you really need?

Solution:

So why do you need SEO?

On-Page SEO

Off-page SEO

On-Page vs. Off-page…What will work best for you?

Why should you begin with On-page SEO?

Done and Dusted? Not really!

Content is still the King!

Do you make use of Infographics in Marketing?

What is an Infographic?

Why an Infographic?

Does it help to use Infographics in marketing?

How to develop a good Infographic?

Who can develop a good Infographic for you?

Why Ascezen?

Why Outsource Digital Marketing?

Expertise

Time

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